Team:LMU-Munich/Functional Principle

The Pathway project

Project “Pathway” involves the creation of an artificial metabolic pathway for the synthesis of azobenzene derivates in E. coli. This would be accomplished by expressing the required enzymes, encased in a proteinaceous bacterial microcompartment. This construct is necessary in order to shield the cell from toxic intermediates which would otherwise make this biosynthesis impossible. Azobenzene derivates are interesting in the field of biochemistry because of their properties as synthetic molecular switches.