On July 1st, Dr. Hannes Meinert started his MSCA post-doctoral project entitled Relieving Fe/?KG-dependent Halogenases from their Carrier-dependence (UNSHACKLED) under the supervision of Prof. Sílvia Osuna at the Institute of Computational Chemistry and Catalysis (IQCC) at the University of Girona (UdG). During this 2-year fellowship Hannes will dive into the field of rational enzyme design, pushing the boundaries of biocatalysis and contributing to the development of sustainable industrial processes. The fellowship will be an excellent opportunity to learn from the expertise in the Osuna-Lab, expanding his skill set with computational methods, while at the same time sharing his knowledge in applied biocatalysis and directed evolution.

About the UNSHACKLED project

The chemical industry contributes majorly to environmental pollution due to unsustainable synthetic processes. Within the scope of this project, we aim at addressing this problem by expanding the molecular understanding of enzyme catalyzed aliphatic halogenation reactions. This approach will provide valuable building blocks to the chemical industry in compliance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the European Green Deal. We will focus on iron/alpha-ketoglutarate-dependent halogenases (?KGH) which are a heavily understudied but highly promising enzyme class, catalyzing aliphatic halogenation. Especially, members that depend on an acyl-carrier protein (ACP), to deliver the substrate, are too costly for industrial implementation.

While current research focuses on the discovery of carrier-free ?KGHs, we aim at relieving carrier-dependent ?KGHs from their protein partner. This will make ?KGHs, and their vastly untapped substrate scope, more accessible to industrial application. We will tackle this shortcoming through advanced enzyme design. Molecular dynamics simulation and correlation-based tools will generate insight about the interaction between ACP and ?KGH. This will be used to expand the understanding of their allosteric relationship on a molecular level. The obtained findings will then provide the foundation for rational enzyme engineering to rid ?KGHs from their carrier-dependence. Finally, in vitro verification will be employed to validate our rational enzyme engineering concept.

Our findings will not only provide a new understanding about the interaction between ACP and ?KGH but also make their valuable substrate scope accessible to industrial application.

About Hannes

Hannes obtained his PhD in 2025 at the University of Greifswald, Germany under the supervision of Prof. Uwe T. Bornscheuer, working on the directed evolution of enzymes and application-oriented biocatalysis. He co-authored several scientific papers, sharing findings on biocatalytic plastic degradation, the development of high-throughput screening tools, and enzyme-catalyzed transformations with the scientific community. “I am looking forward to collaborating with the team of Prof. Osuna, eager to learn more about computational enzyme design.” ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6545-5047

Girona, June 11th, 2026
For more info: ges.iqcc@udg.edu