About Opportunity:

Myo-inositol derivatives including phosphatidylinositols, phosphatidylinositol phosphates, glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchors, mycothiol etc., have myo-inositol as their structural core.

These classes of molecules have numerous important biological roles, involved in cellular signalling, protein anchoring and pathogen virulence, all of which are important areas of research in academia and industry.

Our technology utilises a biotransformation that is highly efficient at converting readily available D-glucose-6-phosphate to high value L-myo-inositol-1-phosphate.

This novel approach offers significant advantages over the current state-of-the-art in inositol chemistry. This biocatalytic approach drastically reduces the synthetic steps required to form differentially protected myo-inositol derivatives and more importantly introduces asymmetry from the onset.

Access to enantio-enriched inositol derivatives directly will allow the synthesis of important high value inositol containing compounds to be easier, faster, cheaper and on a scale that has been previously unimaginable, while also providing access to novel chemical probes to address numerous important biological questions.

Key Benefits:

• Simplified process in the synthesis of high-value myo-inositol derivatives
• Introduces asymmetry in inositol compounds directly
• Easier, faster and cheaper synthesis
• Increased scale-up of synthesis possible

Applications:

• Production of novel chemical probes to investigate cellular signalling, protein anchoring and pathogen virulence

IP Status:

The novel biotransformation technology is covered by an International patent application PCT/GB2014/051920 published 8th January 2015 as WO2015001312.