Ayelet Fishman, Associate Professor

Research Interests:

Applied and molecular biocatalysis, enzyme engineering, enzymes in non-aqueous media

Short Synopsis:

• Molecular biocatalysis: using protein engineering techniques such as directed evolution, saturation mutagenesis, site specific mutagenesis as well as statistical modeling to tailor enzymes for use with unnatural substrates.
• Applied biocatalysis: using enzymes and whole cells to obtain chemicals with high added value, with special focus on chiral drug intermediates and food ingredients.
• Structure-function correlations of enzymes: using protein engineering tools and crystallography to study how enzyme structure influences activity and selectivity. Special focus is placed on oxidizing enzymes and lipases.
• Enzymes in non-aqueous media: using organic solvents and ionic liquids to tailor enzyme properties and allow synthesis of commercially attractive chemicals.

3. Goldfeder, M., Egozi, M., Shuster Ben-Yosef, V., Adir, N. and Fishman, A. (2013) Changes in tyrosinase specificity by ionic liquids and SDS. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 97:1953-1961.

4. Brouk M., and Fishman, A. (2012) Improving process conditions for hydroxytyrosol synthesis by toluene 4-monooxygenase. J. Mol. Catal. B:Enzymatic 84:121-127.

5. Dror, A., and Fishman, A. (2012) Engineering non-heme mono- and dioxygenases for biocatalysis. Comput. Structur. Biotechnol. J. 2 (3): e201209011. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5936/csbj.201209011.

6. Goldfeder, M., Kanteev, M., Adir, N. and Fishman, A. (2013) Influencing the monophenolase/diphenolase activity ratio in tyrosinase. BBA-Proteins and Proteomics. 1834:629-633.

7. Shainsky, J., Bernath-Levin, K., Isaschar-Ovdat, S., Glaser, F., and Fishman, A. (2013) Protein engineering of nitrobenzene dioxygenase for enantioselective synthesis of chiral sulfoxides. Prot. Eng. Des. Select. doi:10.1093/protein/gzt005.