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Welcome and thanks for visiting our Enzyme and Protein Engineering Lab. in UNIST!

Enzymes, a class of specialized proteins, serve as biocatalysts that accelerate reactions in living systems by lowering the activation energy barrier. Without these enzymes, no cellular system could sustain life. Their ability to increase reaction rates—often by factors of up to a billion—and to exhibit remarkable specificity appears almost miraculous.

Today, enzymes find applications not only in living organisms but also across various chemical industries. By employing enzymes as biocatalysts, processes can often be carried out under very mild conditions, such as room temperature and aqueous solutions, enabling the efficient synthesis of numerous value-added products like pharmaceuticals, cosmetic ingredients, and bulk chemicals.

However, despite their seemingly miraculous attributes, many enzymes are not inherently optimized for industrial processes in terms of stability and reaction characteristics. Our laboratory is dedicated to improving these natural biocatalysts. Through rational, three-dimensional structure-based enzyme design, we aim to engineer enzymes into more robust and efficient catalysts capable of converting raw materials into high-value compounds.