Jarmo Niemi, Ph.D.
Department of Biochemistry and Food Chemistry
University of Turku
Arcanum, Vatselankatu 2, FI-20014 University of Turku
Phone: +358-2-333-6859
Fax: +358-2-333-6860
Graduate students:
Thadee Grocholski
Pekka Patrikainen

The "Antibiotic biosynthetic enzymes (ABE)" group works in the field of biochemistry, and specialize in molecular biology and protein chemistry. Our research focuses on enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of aromatic polyketide antibiotics in Streptomyces soil bacteria. We study individual enzymes of antibiotic biosynthetic pathways as enzymes, i.e. their purification, properties, substrate specificity, reaction mechanism and structure.

In collaboration with the Molecular Structural Biology laboratory at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, we have published the structures of 7 enzymes from the anthracycline biosynthetic pathways.

Detailed knowledge of the structure and properties of the enzymes has many potential applications. Knowing the substrate range of a key enzyme makes it possible to predict, whether combinatorial biosynthesis of a particular molecule is possible using this enzyme. The next step will be protein engineering of the enzyme to change its substrate specificity so that it can more effectively used for the production of a particular molecule.