Marc Struhalla: A quicker search for enzymes
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- Has founded the Leipzig company c-LEcta: Marc Struhalla. Quelle: c-LEcta
12.06.2008 -
Five years ago, whilst at the University of Leipzig, Marc Struhalla and his researcher colleague Thomas Greiner-Stöffele were feeling somewhat pressed for time. "For eight weeks, we had been busy looking for specific enzymes, using the normal methods of the day, and without success," recalls Struhalla. This period provided the trigger for their invention. "We were simply not willing to invest a further three months in the search. That is why we consciously began to look for an alternative approach," says Struhalla. And this is exactly what they succeeded in doing: A completely new technique for screening enzymes. Based on this work, the two researchers founded the company c-LEcta, which now employs 24 people. Struhalla: "Our discovery offered us a unique opportunity. It was not something we could turn away from!”
Struhalla’s business revolves around enzymes. Enzymes are a special family of proteins. They are capable of controlling and improving biochemical reactions. Chemically speaking, enzymes are catalysts - substances that speed up a reaction without being used up during the process. Enzymes control almost all metabolic processes in the human body. Also in industry, enzymes are now considered an essential tool, for example for making cheese, or for drug production.
Extracting the exact enzymes
An almost infinite number of enzymes exist in nature, because every living being has a different metabolism and with this a different set of catalysts. In industry, new enzymes are in constant demand, as are new scientific developments and improved production processes. Thereby, the challenge is to find the right naturally occurring enzyme for the task at hand. This is where Struhalla’s and Greiner-Stöffele’s invention comes in. They have developed a technique that allows millions of samples to be screened simultaneously. Furthermore, the new method is so simple that it begs the question: why the previous generation of researchers did not think of it themselves?
"The simplest ideas are always the best," says Struhalla. In the search for new enzymes, the researchers always took extreme care to properly identify the exact gene that lay behind each one. As with all proteins, the enzyme blueprints are found in a single gene. The researchers first separated out the genes from the natural abundance, meaning that for each search there was a reaction vessel containing a single gene and its enzyme. This approach has the advantage of also delivering the related gene when the desired enzyme activity is found, and with this the building blocks for the enzyme. The disadvantage of this method is that the genes must first be isolated, which is a costly and lengthy process, and every incredibly diverse enzyme must be individually studied.
Overcoming exhausting work with a new approach
The researchers call this principle of investigating only one gene and its related enzyme activity at any one time the principle of "unity of pheno- and genotype”. Struhalla remembers: "This was a mental blockage that all the experts had encountered.” During their doctoral thesis, Struhalla and Greiner-Stöffele individually investigated 8000 samples by hand, a process that required eight weeks and which ended without result. "At that point, we had to invent something else," says Struhalla today. Their idea: At the beginning of the search, not to isolate the genes. Instead, they tested thousands of different genes and their corresponding enzymes in a reaction vessel. "This has the great advantage of very quickly sorting out those enzymes that do not work," explains Struhalla. With just one reaction vessel, the two researchers can test ten times as many enzymes as would have been possible over those eight laborious and ultimately frustrating weeks in the lab. Researchers can easily process several hundred reaction vessels simultaneously, allowing millions of gene variants to be investigated, and all in a single day.
If they find the intended enzyme activity in a vessel, then the desired gene must be picked out from the thousands of genes in the vessel. This is achieved by diluting the sample, distributing it across a number of reaction vessels, and then looking again for the same activity. Only three to four dilution steps are required to result in an isolated gene in every vessel, and thus to find the gene that corresponds to the structure of the desired enzyme.
From researchers to founders
When the two young researchers at the University of Leipzig succeeded for the first time with this method, they considered – as any researcher would - which scientific magazine they would choose to publish their findings. But then came the idea to apply for a patent, and to make a business out of their discovery. "The independence, taking sole responsibility for our affairs, was a greatly appealing idea," recalls Struhalla. "We started the weekend with the idea of founding a company, and by Monday the decision was made." A year later, in September 2004, the two started work at the "c-LEcta" company with three other employees and in just three rooms in the "bio-city" start-up centre. "It all happened relatively quickly, but we actually thought we could get to work in three months," says Struhalla, who now manages the economic aspects of the company, while Greiner-Stöffele is responsible for the scientific side.
Nevertheless, in its short four-year corporate history, there have been some ups and downs. For a long time they weren’t sure if the funding was going be sufficient for a quick entry on to the market. The positive turning points were cash injections from the Sächsischen Beteiligungsgesellschaft (Saxon Investment Company) and from the High-Tech Gründerfonds (High Tech Founding Funds), which was launched in 2005 by the German Ministry for Economics. C-LEcta was the first biotech company to benefit from this new seed funding opportunity. Research funding support through the program BioChancePlus from the Federal Research Ministry gave the young company a boost in its first years. "The most important step for the development of the company was the involvement of our ‘business angels’, as we did not have much industrial experience," admits Struhalla. The Manager, Klaus Warning, took on an executive position, and invested some of his own capital into the company – a classic approach for a "business angel”.
In the meantime, the company is doing well. C-LEcta has a large number of customers in industry that require tailored enzymes. Struhalla is reluctant to name names, however - the food industry in particular likes to keeps its image separate from the world of gene technology.
Author: Ragnar Vogt
