Laboratory of Enzymology (ENZILAB)

The history of the organization of the laboratory "Enzymes of Microorganisms" dates back to 1965-1971 as part of the Department (as an Institute) of Microbiology of the Academy of Sciences of the UzSSR.

The laboratory under name of "Enzymology" was created in 2020 on the basis of two laboratories "Enzymes of microorganisms" and "Ecobiotechnology" of the Institute of Microbiology of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Since its organization, the laboratory staff have been searching for enzyme producers, fundamental questions of their formation in microbial cells, regulation of biosynthesis, isolation, purification, characterization, immobilization, and applied aspects of their utilization in biocatalysis.

The heads of the laboratory were PhD, senior researcher Zakirov M.Z. (1965-1984), Doctor of Biological Sciences, Prof. Davranov K.D. (1984-2003) and Doctor of Biological Sciences, Prof. Akhmedova Z.R. (2004-2019), who made a huge contribution to its development.

In the laboratory, research was carried out on such enzymes as hydrolases (lipases, amylases, proteases, cellulases, etc.) and isomerases (glucose isomerase) of strains of local bacteria, filamentous fungi and yeasts. Their formation in the cells of producers was studied, the mechanisms of secretion through the cell wall were shown, and many of them were isolated from the culture fluid, purified to a homogeneous state, and the catalytic properties and molecular forms were characterized.

Since 2020, the main scientific directions of the laboratory are:

- isolation of new strains of microorganisms - producers of biotechnologically important biocatalysts (nitrile hydratases, amidases, oxygenases, amylases, proteases) and metabolites (biosurfactants, proteins, exopolysaccharides);

- improvement of enzymes and metabolites’ producers using mutagenesis and selection methods;

- study of key enzymes of microbial biocatalysis and biotransformations;

- obtaining recombinant forms of promising enzymes and molecular modification of their structure in order to increase catalytic activity and operational stability;

- development of microbial biotechnologies for obtaining demanded products - metabolites by means of microbial and/or enzymatic synthesis and biocatalysis.