Profile Biocatalysis
Without biocatalysis - the use of natural catalysts to effect chemical processes and transformations - beer and cheese would not exist. But biocatalysis is also vitally important for the production of chemicals and pharmaceutical products, and biocatalysts are integral to many biotechnological applications.
An ancient science with a firm place in the future
TU Delft maintains a world class programme in biocatalysis. The multidisciplinary programme draws on knowledge across a range of emerging life science technologies to gain deeper understanding of biocatalytic processes, to use that knowledge to improve the efficiency of existing biocatalytic processes, and to explore new applications based on biocatalysis.
What you will learn
The Biocatalysis specialisation integrates enzymological, bio-organic, bio-inorganic and protein-analytical knowledge, with the aim of imparting an understanding of the principles of biocatalysis. The specialisation covers theoretical aspects of biocatalysis and practical knowledge - both of which are essential to the process of determining the structure and function of single or multiple enzymes.
In particular, the students will learn about modern kinetic, analytical and computer graphical methods used in present day protein/peptide/enzyme research. As catalysts, enzymes are essential proteins in all living organisms. They are also used in numerous industrial conversions. The specialisation gives students insight and understanding into:
- dealing with enzymes in practice,
- studying enzyme properties, structures, functions and possible links to disease, and
- selecting the most suitable enzymes for specific industrial applications.
Combining different specialisations
This specialisation is part of the MSc programme in Life Science & Technology. The timetable for the programme has been set up to make it possible to follow two (or even three) specialisations at the same time. This gives you the possibility to first sample the different flavours, and only later in the first year to definitively choose a particular specialisation.