Technology Licensing Opportunity: Thermostable Glowtag (yfast)

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Summary from the notice

The Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists behind this invention developed a new way to make enzymes tougher so they can survive and work well at high temperatures. They used a heat-loving microorganism called Parageobacillus thermoglucosidasius as a testing ground and created a modified version of a fluorogenic protein called YFAST that glows only when it folds correctly. The modified version called tsFAST is stable under heat and by attaching this glowing tag to other enzymes, we can quickly see which ones are working and stable just by checking if they glow. The Challenge: The enzyme engineering industry faces significant challenges, particularly in developing enzymes that can function reliably at high temperatures, which are common in industrial processes such as biofuel production, waste degradation and chemical manufacturing. Most available enzymes come from mesophilic organisms that degrade and become non-functional under heat, while naturally thermostable enzymes from thermophiles are rare, difficult to work with and limited in diversity. Additionally, current screening methods for identifying heat-resistant enzymes are slow, error-prone and produce many false positives, making the development process inefficient. How it Works: This innovation introduces a novel high-throughput screening platform that uses a thermophilic organism (Parageobacillus thermoglucosidasius) combined with a specially engineered thermostable fluorogenic reporter protein (tsFAST). This syste…

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