Position: PhD student since April 2018
Department: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Dipayan Samanta
Research Title: To enhance the methane oxidation rate in Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b through tailoring of particulate methane monooxygenase gene.
Methane monooxygenase (MMO) is a complex metalloenzyme that handles the oxidative catalysis of methane into methanol. MMO is made up of two form- a cytosolic form or soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO) and a transmembrane form or particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO). Being a transmembrane protein, pMMO acts as a promising enzyme that diffuse and oxidize methane at a greater rate in methanotrophs. Current working focuses on the mutagenesis of the conserved amino acids present within the α-subunit of three-subunit pMMO, to enhance the methane oxidation rate in OB3b. Production of small-scale derived products will follow this work.