{"id":68413,"date":"2024-06-07T13:35:38","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T11:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/?p=68413"},"modified":"2024-08-15T13:18:39","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T11:18:39","slug":"mgnify-upcycle-food-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science-technology\/mgnify-upcycle-food-waste\/","title":{"rendered":"Case study: Discovering new enzymes to upcycle food waste"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<article class=\"vf-card vf-card--brand vf-card--bordered vf-u-margin__bottom--800\" default>\n  <div class=\"vf-card__content | vf-stack vf-stack--400\">\n      <h3 class=\"vf-card__heading\">\n      Summary    <\/h3>\n                <p class=\"vf-card__text\"><ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To support a growing global population, the food industry needs to rethink production processes while simultaneously reducing waste.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the right biotechnological solutions, animal by-products, such as bones and skin, could be upcycled into protein powder for animal and human consumption.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers are using the vast protein space in EMBL-EBI\u2019s MGnify microbiome data resource to identify new enzymes that can help extract animal proteins from bones in a robust and sustainable manner.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul><\/p>\n      <\/div>\n<\/article>\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"a1\">Challenge \u2013 more protein, less waste<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The United Nations predicts that the global population will <a href=\"https:\/\/ourworldindata.org\/world-population-update-2022#the-global-population-is-projected-to-peak-at-around-10-4-billion-in-2086\">peak before the end of the century at just over 10.4 billion people<\/a>. To feed this growing population, countries need to devise new approaches for sustainable food production.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One significant issue in animal production is the large amount of by-products, such as bones and skin. For instance, about 45% of a salmon\u2019s total weight currently goes to waste because many people only use the fillet meat. Researchers have been exploring ways to use more of an animal\u2019s body mass in food production, and consequently reduce waste and increase yields.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One way forward is to extract animal proteins from animal by-products or plus-products, such as bones and skin, and use them in protein powders. Bones are particularly robust, however, making it a challenge to degrade and extract protein from them. To overcome this difficulty, researchers need a powerful agent, such as an enzyme cocktail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<article class=\"vf-card vf-card--brand vf-card--bordered vf-u-margin__bottom--800\" default>\n  <div class=\"vf-card__content | vf-stack vf-stack--400\">\n      <h3 class=\"vf-card__heading\">\n      What are enzymes?    <\/h3>\n                <p class=\"vf-card__text\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enzymes are biological catalysts. They drive chemical reactions without the need for lab-made chemicals that sometimes pollute the environment. Enzymes can be used to improve industrial processes.<\/span><\/p>\n      <\/div>\n<\/article>\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"a2\">Proof of concept<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Scientists at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.norceresearch.no\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">NORCE<\/a>, an independent research institute in Norway, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.norceresearch.no\/en\/news\/cocktail-av-enzymer-breaks-down-bones\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">found a solution at the bottom of the ocean<\/a>. They studied worms and microbes that live on the seafloor and \u2018eat\u2019 the bones of dead whales, extracting nutrients. These bacteria contain specific enzymes with bone-degrading properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is an ingenious ability, but it does come with some limitations. For example, many enzymes are sensitive to heat, which means they risk losing their properties above a certain temperature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having identified bone-degrading enzymes that live in marine environments, NORCE researchers are now trying to find out if they could use these enzymes in industrial processes, considering the following requirements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>large-scale production\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>expedited bone degradation (in nature, the process takes months)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>determining the optimal temperature for activity<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>ensuring scalability and sustainability<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere is a great need to discover both better and new enzymes for the industry. And find the right combinations, just like in a cocktail. This new study provides us with a good starting point where we see that the enzyme cocktail has a greater effect than single enzymes when it comes to bone degradation,\u201d said Antonio Garcia-Moyano, Senior Researcher at NORCE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"a3\">Using MGnify to identify bone-degrading enzymes&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that researchers know what bone-degrading enzymes look like, they can use this knowledge to identify related enzymes with even more promising properties. To this end, researchers are taking advantage of the treasure trove of microbiome data housed in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebi.ac.uk\/metagenomics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">MGnify database<\/a>, which is managed by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ebi.ac.uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">EMBL\u2019s European Bioinformatics Institute<\/a> (EMBL-EBI).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A publicly accessible resource, MGnify enables researchers to share, analyse, discover, and compare microbiome and protein sequence data in a comprehensive manner. It&#8217;s a unique hub of large microbiome datasets from a range of environments, including the world&#8217;s oceans.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"vf-blockquote | vf-u-margin__bottom--600 vf-u-margin__top--600\">\n  <div>\n    <div>\n      <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMGnify will help us to identify the right enzyme or cocktail of enzymes with the traits required for a specific bioprocess.\u201d<\/span>    <\/div>\n    \n          <footer class=\"vf-u-margin__top--600\">\n      \n      <div class=\"vf-blockquote_author\">\n        \u2013 Antonio Garcia-Moyano, Senior Researcher at NORCE      <\/div>\n\n      \n      <div class=\"vf-blockquote_author__details\"><\/div>\n    <\/footer>\n      <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"a4\">Scaling up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Once a suitable cocktail of enzymes is identified, the development process moves to the next step, where researchers work with a company that produces enzymes for a range of applications. One such company is the UK-based <a href=\"https:\/\/biocatalysts.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Biocatalysts Ltd<\/a>, which manufactures enzymes on an industrial scale.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Biocatalysts Ltd, part of the BRAIN Biotech Group, develops, among other things, enzyme formulations for food processing in areas such as dairy, baking, brewing, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBioinformatics is very important to identify new proteins of industrial interest and the advent of artificial intelligence tools have helped refine the development, scale-up, and manufacturing of specialty enzymes for different industrial applications,\u201d said Lilly Amore, Head of Technology Development at Biocatalysts Ltd.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through a previous collaboration with the MGnify team at EMBL-EBI, Biocatalysts Ltd developed MetXtra&#x2122;, a metagenomics database that includes open datasets from MGnify as well as proprietary sequences. MetXtra&#x2122; has been a valuable upstream tool at Biocatalysts Ltd to identify new enzymes and offer customised solutions in different market sectors.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"vf-blockquote | vf-u-margin__bottom--600 vf-u-margin__top--600\">\n  <div>\n    <div>\n      <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBioinformatics is very important to identify new proteins of industrial interest.&#8221; <\/span>    <\/div>\n    \n          <footer class=\"vf-u-margin__top--600\">\n      \n      <div class=\"vf-blockquote_author\">\n        \u2013 Lilly Amore, Head of Technology Development at Biocatalysts Ltd.      <\/div>\n\n      \n      <div class=\"vf-blockquote_author__details\"><\/div>\n    <\/footer>\n      <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Developments of Biocatalysts Ltd and BRAIN Biotech AG have expanded the potential of MetXtra&#x2122; and the sequence-driven discovery approach even further. By fusing the MetXtra&#x2122; data and BRAIN Biotech\u2019s proprietary metagenomics library SeqPool, the BRAIN Biotech group offers one of the most powerful databases for the discovery of new enzymes of industrial interest. The high diversity of this in-house database provides access to more than 99.8% novel sequences expanding the publicly-known sequence space. This database is integrated with advanced bioinformatics and AI workflows for sequence- and structure-driven enzyme identification. More widely, pipelines like MetXtra&#x2122; and SeqPool can be used to search the vastness of protein sequence and structure space to identify suitable enzyme combinations to enable bone degradation in an industrial setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"a5\">An interdisciplinary effort<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This work of identifying suitable enzymes for bone degradation is part of the wider <a href=\"https:\/\/blueremediomics.eu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">BlueRemediomics<\/a> project coordinated by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebi.ac.uk\/people\/person\/rob-finn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Rob Finn<\/a> at EMBL-EBI. Blue Remediomics aims to systematically catalogue marine microbe datasets to facilitate the development of industrial processes that reduce waste, increase the reuse of natural and man-made products and by-products, and improve aquaculture processes. The project closely aligns with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/programme\/research-plans\/microbial-ecosystems\/\">EMBL\u2019s Microbial Ecosystems<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/programme\/research-plans\/planetary-biology\/\">Planetary Biology<\/a> themes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bone degradation is just one of many exciting applications explored by BlueRemediomics, which assembles experts from different disciplines. With the help of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucl.ac.uk\/orengo-group\/people\/prof-christine-orengo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Christine Orengo<\/a> from University College London (UCL), the team is leveraging artificial intelligence to search huge volumes of data to find the most suitable enzyme candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The blue economy requires a huge range of expertise and skills, spanning microbiologists, molecular biologists, data scientists, bioinformaticians, biotech specialists, food manufacturers, and more. Translating a concept from the research lab to the market is a complex and lengthy process, but it can have significant benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cross-disciplinary projects like BlueRemediomics represent an ideal platform to unite experts from diverse fields and explore the feasibility of new biotechnologies with potential applications in different industries.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"a6\">The final products<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Other companies can use such mass-produced enzymes to process animal bones into create protein powder that can be upcycled into products for human or animal consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NORCE scientists are in discussion with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.norilia.com\/\">Norilia<\/a>, a Norwegian company working on creating new products from meat and poultry industry by-products. The company\u2019s mission is to ensure that the whole animal is used and waste is minimised.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EMBL-EBI data resource helps scientists upcycle animal by-products.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":68467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11054,17591],"tags":[125,28,17689,36,780,11936,88,5612,373,5776,5736,1697],"embl_taxonomy":[2906,10052,19091],"class_list":["post-68413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-perspectives","category-science-technology","tag-big-data","tag-bioinformatics","tag-case-study","tag-embl-ebi","tag-finn","tag-food-security","tag-metagenomics","tag-mgnify","tag-microbe","tag-microbial-ecosystems","tag-planetary-biology","tag-sustainability","embl_taxonomy-embl-ebi","embl_taxonomy-microbiome-informatics","embl_taxonomy-robert-finn"],"acf":{"featured":true,"show_featured_image":false,"field_target_display":"both","field_article_language":{"value":"english","label":"English"},"article_intro":"<p>How the MGnify microbiome-protein database is helping researchers identify cocktails of enzymes to upcycle animal bones and other by-products<\/p>\n","related_links":[{"link_description":"MGnify database","link_url":"https:\/\/www.ebi.ac.uk\/metagenomics"},{"link_description":"Developing more sustainable animal feeds","link_url":"https:\/\/www.ebi.ac.uk\/about\/news\/technology-and-innovation\/holo-food-data-portal\/"},{"link_description":"Can data help feed a hungry world?","link_url":"https:\/\/www.ebi.ac.uk\/about\/news\/perspectives\/plant-animal-genomics-data-food-security\/"}],"source_article":false,"in_this_article":[{"heading_description":"Challenge \u2013 more protein, less waste","anchor":"a1"},{"heading_description":"Proof of concept","anchor":"a2"},{"heading_description":"Using MGnify to identify bone-degrading enzymes\u00a0","anchor":"a3"},{"heading_description":"Scaling up","anchor":"a4"},{"heading_description":"An interdisciplinary effort","anchor":"a5"},{"heading_description":"The final products","anchor":"a6"}],"press_contact":"None","article_translations":false,"languages":""},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[{"uuid":"a:3:{i:0;s:36:\"b14d3f13-5670-44fb-8970-e54dfd9c921a\";i:1;s:36:\"89e00fee-87f4-482e-a801-4c3548bb6a58\";i:2;s:36:\"a99d1a7c-ca83-4c00-ab61-d082d3e41ce3\";}","parents":[],"name":["EMBL-EBI"],"slug":"embl-ebi","description":"Where &gt; All EMBL sites &gt; EMBL-EBI"},{"uuid":"a:3:{i:0;s:36:\"302cfdf7-365b-462a-be65-82c7b783ebf7\";i:1;s:36:\"18699e63-ed43-40c6-8d1c-203db7ed72ee\";i:2;s:36:\"46f72e87-7e7f-4412-8d20-26c0edeaecd6\";}","parents":[],"name":["Microbiome Informatics"],"slug":"microbiome-informatics","description":"What &gt; EMBL-EBI Services &gt; Microbiome Informatics"},{"uuid":"a:2:{i:0;s:36:\"4428d1fd-441a-4d6d-a1c5-5dcf5665f213\";i:1;s:36:\"8f793c8c-a4aa-4043-b72b-b9256c849d31\";}","parents":[],"name":["Robert Finn"],"slug":"robert-finn","description":"Who &gt; Robert Finn"}],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Case study: Discovering new enzymes to upcycle food waste | EMBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How EMBL-EBI&#039;s MGnify microbiome-protein database helps researchers identify cocktails of enzymes to upcycle animal bones and by-products\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science-technology\/mgnify-upcycle-food-waste\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Case study: Discovering new enzymes to upcycle food waste | EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How EMBL-EBI&#039;s MGnify microbiome-protein database helps researchers identify cocktails of enzymes to upcycle animal bones and by-products\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science-technology\/mgnify-upcycle-food-waste\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-06-07T11:35:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-15T11:18:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/2024-FINN-Bone-degradation-use-case-1000x600-final.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Oana Stroe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Oana Stroe\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science-technology\/mgnify-upcycle-food-waste\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science-technology\/mgnify-upcycle-food-waste\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Oana Stroe\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/95d28f359cc138357c5dcf79319ef414\"},\"headline\":\"Case study: Discovering new enzymes to upcycle food waste\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-06-07T11:35:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-15T11:18:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science-technology\/mgnify-upcycle-food-waste\/\"},\"wordCount\":1011,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science-technology\/mgnify-upcycle-food-waste\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/2024-FINN-Bone-degradation-use-case-1000x600-final.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"big data\",\"bioinformatics\",\"case study\",\"embl-ebi\",\"finn\",\"food security\",\"metagenomics\",\"mgnify\",\"microbe\",\"microbial ecosystems\",\"planetary biology\",\"sustainability\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Perspectives\",\"Science &amp; 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