Immobilized Enzymes

Abstract

Enzyme immobilization technology is one of the key modern industrial biotechnologies. Since the commercial use of first immobilized enzymes in the 1960s, enzyme immobilization technologies and theories as well as immobilization materials and chemistry have gained rapid development. Nowadays, the design of the immobilized enzymes, which suits different specific applications, has abandoned the traditional trial-and-error approach and gradually transited to the rational design, which is characterized by the fact that the enzyme immobilization technology is now used not only to realize the reuse of the costly enzymes a better control of the process, but also to improve the enzyme catalytic functions such as activity, stability, and selectivity. To some extent, the enzyme immobilization technology is becoming a complimentary technology to the genetic engineering. Currently, it is becoming increasingly appreciated that the availability of a robust immobilized enzyme in the early stage of process development will definitively enable early insight into process development and save costs not only in process development but also in production. However, the lack of guidelines for selection of the method of immobilization and the performance to be expected of an immobilized enzyme for a specific application seriously hampers application of a rational approach to the design of such robust immobilized enzymes. In this context, the article systematically delineates the basic principles governing the individual approaches in the design of robust enzymes, which can be classified into the following four approaches: (1) rational versus trial–error, (2) diversity versus versatility, (3) complimentary versus alternative, and (4) modification versus immobilization approach. Moreover, the article attempts to provide a rational basis for future development of immobilized enzymes.