Sprecher
Beschreibung
Chitin is one of the most abundant biopolymers on our planet, second only to cellulose. It can be found in the exoskeletons of crustaceans and insects, rendering it a readily available resource. Furthermore, the use of edible insects as a food source for humans has emerged as an issue of worldwide interest, due to global population growth, food insecurity in some regions of the world and increasing environmental pressures. Chitin is the primary feedstock for the production of the commercially relevant polymer chitosan as well as chitosan oligosaccharides (COS).
COS have potential applications in the biomedical, pharmaceutical and agricultural sectors due to their physicochemical properties and reactive functional groups.
Today, the production of chitosan and COS is achieved by chemical depolymerization and deacetylation reactions that provide limited control on product characteristics, demand substantial labor during downstream processing and have a negative environmental impact. Currently, there is no other commercial alternative for the conversion of chitin to chitosan.
This research project focuses on the development of an alternative to extract and process chitin from crustaceans and insects. An enzymatic platform to catalyze the depolymerization and deacetylation of chitin mediated by exo-chitinases, endo-chitinases and deacetylases to produce COS and chitosan. Exo-chitinases and endo-chitinases are hydrolytic enzymes that are able to convert chitin polysaccharides into shorter oligosaccharides, potentially increasing the accessibility of further enzymatic processing.
