E. (Edita) Jurak, Dr
Research interests
The research done in the Bioproduct Engineering (BE) unit focuses on the biocatalysis and enzyme discovery for modification of complex polymers such as carbohydrates and plastics.
The more fundamental research is directed towards understanding how microbial enzymes work and work together (gene clusters) to modify given polymers. Large focus area is understanding enzyme function, structure and properties, studying natural diversity of enzymes, and getting insights into the changes of the polymer structure and physical properties upon the enzyme’s action.
Examples are 1) the biosynthesis and structure of NanoGlycogen from the red microalgae Galdieria sulphuraria, the structure-function relationship of GH13 and GH57 microbial glycogen branching enzymes. 2) unravelling the function of uncharacterized enzymes from xylan related GH families and enzymes of unknown function (UNKs) from bacterial gene clusters trough transcriptomic and sequence analysis and in-depth biochemical characterization.