TU Graz Researchers Produce Pseudouridine by means of Biocatalytic Synthesis

Todether with Martin Pfeiffer and Andrej Ribar, Bernd Nidetzky succeded in the biocatalysis of pseudouridine: Lunghammer - TU Graz By Falko Schoklitsch The new and patented method for the production of the important mRNA vaccine component pseudouridine is more efficient, sustainable and cost-effective than the previously used chemical synthesis. Researchers from the Institute of Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering at TU Graz and the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (acib) have developed a novel method for the production of central components of mRNA vaccines and applied for a patent. In an article published in the specialist journal Nature Communications ÜBernd Nidetzky, Martin Pfeiffer and Andrej Ribar explain how they produced the essential vaccine ingredient pseudouridine by means of biocatalytic synthesis and thus created an alternative to the previous method of chemical synthesis. One process step is sufficient. This alternative offers some decisive advantages. The chemical synthesis of pseudouridine not only involves toxic reagents and rare raw materials, but is also very energyand time-consuming due to the necessary four to eight process steps and cooling to minus 20 degrees. Biocatalysis, on the other hand, requires only one process step with four parallel reactions that take place at room temperature.