Biocatalyst Mining, Protein Engineering and Synthetic Biology for Enzymatic Preparation of Novel Food and Pharmaceutical Small Molecules

Fermentation engineering, protein engineering and synthetic biology constitute core technical systems for green production of food and pharmaceutical small‑molecule compounds. Wild‑type microbial biocatalysts often suffer from low catalytic activity, poor tolerance to pH, bile salts and other stress conditions, as well as narrow substrate spectra. These drawbacks hinder the efficient green biosynthesis of terpenoids, polyphenols, thrombolytic peptides and other food‑pharmaceutical bioactive small molecules. Advanced strategies including unique microbial resource mining, AI‑assisted protein engineering and synthetic‑biology pathway reconstruction, coupled with high‑density fermentation and in‑situ product separation, greatly improve enzyme performance and strain biosynthetic capacity. Bioactive small‑molecule substrates can also serve as molecular probes to reveal protein allosteric mechanisms and screen functional enzymes, forming a closed loop for biomanufacturing research.

This Research Topic aims to address major bottlenecks restricting the enzymatic biosynthesis of food and pharmaceutical small molecules, builds an interdisciplinary academic platform and facilitates the industrial translation of green biomanufacturing technologies. We intend to assemble cross‑disciplinary research outputs covering the full biocatalysis pipeline: biocatalyst discovery, protein redesign, synthetic‑biology circuit construction, advanced fermentation and downstream application of target small‑molecule products. We hope to clarify structure‑function relationships and allosteric regulation of key enzymes, promote the development of robust engineered microbial cell factories, and explore feasible.

We welcome Original Research and Review articles covering the following themes:

(1) Screening of extremophilic/fermentation‑derived microbes; mining, biochemical and structural characterization of novel hydrolytic or biosynthetic enzymes;

(2) Rational/combinatorial enzyme engineering targeting flexible loops, termini and metal‑binding domains assisted by molecular dynamics and deep learning;

(3) Metabolic circuit design, engineered strain development, and advanced fermentation process optimization including fed‑batch, high‑density cultivation and in‑situ product separation;

(4) Pure‑enzyme and whole‑cell catalysis for food‑pharmaceutical small‑molecule preparation, including process optimization, stability assessment, in‑vitro pharmacology and formulation studies, and biocatalytic processes for producing high‑value food functional ingredients and oral pharmaceutical small molecules.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: biocatalyst mining, protein engineering, synthetic biology, biomanufacturing, food‑active factors, pharmaceutical small molecules, whole‑cell catalysis, enzyme modification

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.