Dr. Caroline E. Paul is an associated partner, and co-supervisor of DCs number 5 and 9. Additionally, she is part of the career development workshop.
Caroline E. Paul received her Honours BSc and MSc degrees in Biological Chemistry at the University of Toronto with Prof. Mark Nitz, and her PhD degree at the University of Oviedo with Prof. Vicente Gotor-Fernández and Prof. Iván Lavandera within the EU project “Biotrains”. After postdoctoral work at TU Delft and Wageningen University, she was appointed as assistant professor in Biocatalysis at TU Delft in 2018 and associate professor in 2023. Her research highlights include the application of artificial cofactors in biocatalytic reactions, the discovery and characterization of redox enzymes, and the development of enzymatic cascades to obtain high-value products.
Caroline co-organized the NextGenChem@NL and BiocatNL symposiums for early career researchers in chemistry and biocatalysis in The Netherlands, and is the co-founder of NextGenBiocat, an annual international symposium for budding researchers in biocatalysis.
Key expertise
The team led by Caroline E. Paul in the Biocatalysis section at Delft University of Technology explores the synthetic potential of enzymes, specifically reductases, dehydrogenases and transferases via cofactor engineering, and also takes a retrosynthetic approach to produce valuable target molecules.
In particular, the group characterised and applied several key flavin-dependent monooxygenases and reductases in biocatalytic reactions to obtain high-value products with new C-O, C-N, C-C and C-halogen bonds: hydroxylases for selective aromatic hydroxylation, styrene monooxygenases for asymmetric epoxidation (with further nucleophilic reactions) and sulfoxidation, halogenases for selective halogenation, ene reductases for asymmetric reduction of alkenes (including coupled to amine dehydrogenases to obtain chiral amines). These applications demonstrated the use of redox enzymes in industrially relevant chemical syntheses for fragrance and pharmaceutical industries. A recent example is on the synthesis of the (R)-citronellal, a precursor for (–)-menthol.
The DCBP at UBERN has Analytical Research Services (ARS) such as high-resolution NMR, X-Ray facilities, Mass spectrometry and protein analysis, for all researchers. Prof. Paradisi’s 5 labs (>300sqm) have been designed with dedicated and connected spaces for biochemistry, microbiology, synthesis, and analytical chemistry. The labs are fully equipped with chromatography systems, HPLC, GC, and Vapourtec flow reactors.
The research laboratory of the Biocatalysis section consists of fully equipped state-of-the-art facilities: a molecular biology lab (S1) for protein production (up to 25 L), purification and characterization; analytical equipment (GCs, GC-MS, HPLCs, UV, stopped-flow for rapid kinetics, ITC, EPR); a chemical synthetic lab, including for enzyme screening, and reactors (SpinChem); molecular modeling software (Yasara, PyMOL). The section also hosts NMR facilities.
Hosting Institution
TU Delft is highly recognized, both nationally and internationally for its research portfolio and teaching capacities, as one of the top universities in the world. It is the largest university of engineering and sciences in the Netherlands, with ~27,000 students and an academic staff of >2,000, of which 300 are professors, publishing ~7,000 articles and books, and 250 patents, annually. It is a highly international environment, with 69% of PhD students and 57% of scientific staff having foreign nationality. TU Delft has outstanding teaching and research facilities, and has been awarded the “HR Excellence in Research” logo.
Contact
c.e.paul@tudelft.nl
Delft University of Technology (TU Delft)
Biocatalysis section
Department of Biotechnology
Van der Maasweg 9
2629 HZ Delft
The Netherlands
https://nl.linkedin.com/in/carolineepaul
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7889-9920
https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=25722196500
https://x.com/Caroline_E_Paul
Relevant Publications
L. Martínez-Montero, D. Tischler, P. Süss, A. Schallmey, M.C.R. Franssen, F. Hollmann, C.E. Paul, Asymmetric azidohydroxylation of styrene derivatives mediated by a biomimetic styrene monooxygenase enzymatic cascade. Catal. Sci. Technol. 2021, 11, 5077. DOI:10.1039/D1CY00855B.
C.E. Paul, D. Eggerichs, A.H. Westphal, D. Tischler, W.J.H. van Berkel, Flavoprotein monooxygenases: Versatile biocatalysts. Biotechnol. Adv. 2021, 51, 107712. DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2021.107712.
C. Mügge, T. Heine, A.G. Baraibar, W.J.H. van Berkel, C.E. Paul, D. Tischler, Flavin-dependent N-hydroxylating enzymes: distribution and application. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 2020, 104, 6481. DOI: 10.1007/s00253-020-10705-w.
M. Ismail, L. Schroeder, M. Frese, T. Kottke, F. Hollmann, C.E. Paul, N. Sewald, Straightforward regeneration of reduced flavin adenine dinucleotide required for enzymatic tryptophan halogenation. ACS Catal. 2019, 9, 1389-1395. DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.8b04500.