Master of Science FH Prize 2021 of the Schweizerischer Verband dipl. Chemiker FH (SVC) for Jan Taublitz
During a Master of Science in Chemistry at the ZHAW, Jan specialized in "Chemistry for the Life Sciences" and completed his Master’s Thesis under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Rebecca Buller and Dr. Fabian Meyer.
In his Master’s Thesis, Jan studied the “Biocatalytic Potential of α-Ketoglutarate Dependent Dioxygenases”. The reaction scope of αKGDs is one of the most versatile known, and includes reactions such as hydroxylations, epoxidations, halogenations and many more. To screen αKGDs on novel and/ or non-natural substrates, validated, efficient high through-put assays are necessary which do not have to be adapted on the respective substrate. Ian developed and validated two approaches where screening is monitored independently from the enzyme’s main reaction via analysis of a side product. He then applied the new method on a library of αKGD to identify natural and novel substrate-αKGD combinations.
A short summary of his project was published in Ajour(PDF 2,1 MB) (in German).