About this Research Topic
Indeed, long considered impractical for complex metabolic pathways, cell free biocatalysis is now being considered to produce a wide range of bioproducts due, in part, to recent advances in metabolic pathway engineering, cofactor recycling and biomimetics, immobilization technologies, and direct electrochemistry of redox enzymes. Additionally, beyond in vitro production of bioproducts, cell free approaches also represent a powerful tool for pathway prototyping/optimization in cases where microbial biocatalysts still remain an appealing alternative.
With this Research Topic, our aim is to present a comprehensive view of the recent advances in the field of cell free biocatalysis and their impacts on the broader adoption of this approach for the production of a wide range of bioproducts from small volume/high value products to large volume commodity products. We are also trying to bring together different disciplines such as material science, bio/chemical catalysis, electrochemistry, enzyme engineering, and modeling. Bridging the gap between these disciplines is vital to the development of reliable and cost competitive cell free based approaches for the production of bioproducts.
This Research Topic encourages original research articles, perspectives and reviews on the topic of cell free biocatalysis to improve the production of bioproducts. Themes of interest include, but are not limited to:
• metabolic pathway engineering
• synthetic metabolic pathways
• pathway prototyping
• biomimetic cofactors
• enzyme immobilization/encapsulation
• enzyme engineering
• electrode design
• bio/material interfaces
• bioelectrocatalysis
• techno economic analysis
• cell free protein expression (for large scale production for cell free biocatalysis)
Keywords: pathway prototyping, biomimetic cofactors, enzyme immobilization/encapsulation, synthetic metabolic pathways, enzyme engineering, electrode design, bio/material interfaces, bioelectrocatalysis, cell free protein expression
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.