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Romania
Citizenship:
Ph.D. degree award:
2001
Mrs.
Monica Ioana
TOSA
Prof. Habil. Dr.
Professor
-
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI
Researcher | Teaching staff | Scientific reviewer
>20
years
Web of Science ResearcherID:
B-5618-2011
Personal public profile link.
Curriculum Vitae (20/02/2024)
Expertise & keywords
Biocatalysis
Bioprocessing
Bioorganic synthesis
Immobilized enzymes
Expresion and purification of mutant and wild type enzymes
Nanoparticles
Chirality
Organic
Biotechnology
Bioremediation
Enzyme technology
Enzyme applications
Enzyme immobilization
Projects
Publications & Patents
Entrepreneurship
Reviewer section
Advanced (multi)-enzymatic synthesis and purification processes for bio-based furan derivatives
Call name:
2023
-
2026
Role in this project:
Key expert
Coordinating institution:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI
Project partners:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI ()
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI ()
Project website:
Abstract:
Sustainable biorefineries convert biomass to new building blocks, such as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), which is an attractive chemical as it can be transformed into compounds with applications in several areas (plastic-polymer and resins, pharmaceutical, fragrance and textile industries). This project focuses on the effective enzymatic transformation of HMF into valuable furan-based derivatives in an eco-efficient way. This is done by addressing important research gaps and key challenges, such as difficulties in the process scale-up due to the strong inhibition and high toxicity of furans (generating low enzymatic activity and stability), improvements of biocatalyst production and properties (to develop industrial-scale bioprocesses), and the development of (accessible, efficient and cost-effective) intensification downstream processing to tackle the generally low substrate/product concentrations. The nature-inspired bio-catalytic transformation using enzymatic networks will be coupled with efficient downstream processing based on process intensification principles (advanced fluid separations), and in-situ product recovery (ISPR) techniques or hybrid methods. Moreover, rigorous validated process models will be developed and used for the scale-up, control and optimization of the process, as well as for sensitivity analysis to understand better the chemical systems and determine the best range of the operating parameters.
The research team from BBU has strong expertise in enzymatic reactions mediated by several enzyme classes and can scale up the developed biocatalytic processes to prepare high-value products with real industrial applications. This is complemented by the expertise of the project director in intensified downstream processing, and in the design and control of innovative eco-efficient processes (by combining process intensification and separation techniques).
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Biocatalysis Engineering–Selective Magnetic nanoparticles-based Reactor Technology
Call name:
P 2 - SP 2.1 - Proiect experimental - demonstrativ
PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2019-5031
2020
-
2022
Role in this project:
Coordinating institution:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI
Project partners:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)
Project website:
http://www.chem.ubbcluj.ro/romana/ANEX/biochimie/besmart/Results.htm
Abstract:
The BE-SMART project involves the preparation of selective MNPs supports for (R)- and (S)-selective -transaminazes with improved properties through specific selective MNPs-based enzyme immobilization methods and the development of novel continuous-flow systems for pilot-lab scale production various amine enantiomers relevant for fine chemicals and pharma industries. The BE-SMART project – by the development of novel economical selective nanoscale enzyme immobilization and compartmentalization methods combined with complex microfluidic solutions for applications upscaled to pilot lab scale – can significantly contribute to improvements in the quality of life.
The BE-SMART project involves four objectives. Briefly, Objective 1 aims the generation of selective MNPs as support for enzymes (including new production methods to gain improved properties. Objective 2 will develop selective MNPs-based enzyme immobilization methods (including novel-affinity based immobilization methods or a combination of physical entrapment or adsorption and covalent binding on surface of some stereoselective transaminases with R- and S-selectivity, isolated from different natural sources, with improved stability); Objective 3 will result in novel MNPs-based microfluidic systems for pilot-lab scale production (use of nanoscale immobilization methods to in new continuous-flow setups to achieve pilot-lab scale production), while Objective 4 intends to upscale the newly developed biocatalysts based applications to pilot-lab scale synthesis of various amine enantiomers as chiral building blocks for the synthesis of bioactive molecules.
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Nanoscale Enzyme Immobilization and Microfluidics for Systems Biocatalysis
Call name:
POC 25/2016
2016
-
2020
Role in this project:
Key expert
Coordinating institution:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI
Project partners:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)
Project website:
http://www.chem.ubbcluj.ro/romana/ANEX/biochimie/nemsyb/
Abstract:
The NEMSyB is an interdisciplinary research project exploring the potential of innovative and new nanoscale immobilization methods of enzymes and their integration in novel microfluidic systems of various dimensions and complexity. The intensification of single and multistep enzyme reactions and their integration in novel combinations which are not existing in Nature (i.e. a systems biocatalysis approach) will result in novel economical and green processes for synthetic applications. The project aims – by the aid of nanosupported enzymes and integrated microfluidic devices – to develop smart artificial metabolic systems for production of industrially relevant compounds such as chiral forms of amino acids, amines, aminoalcohols and alcohols. The project – by development of novel nanoscale enzyme immobilization and compartmentalization methods combined with complex microfluidic solutions for various applications – can significantly contribute to improvements in the quality of life. The project will massively improve the interdisciplinary competitiveness of the research team at University Babes-Bolyai and will result in their involvement in European research projects. To commercialize the results, patenting and spin-off company foundation is expected
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INTEGRATED GREEN TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM FOR PRODUCING ADVANCED BIOFUELS
Call name:
Joint Applied Research Projects - PCCA 2013 - call
PN-II-PT-PCCA-2013-4-1006
2014
-
2017
Role in this project:
Coordinating institution:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI
Project partners:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO); INSTITUTUL DE CERCETARI PRODUSE AUXILIARE ORGANICE S.A. (RO); Institutul National de Cercetare-Dezvoltare pentru Chimie si Petrochimie - ICECHIM Bucuresti (RO)
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)
Project website:
http://chem.ubbcluj.ro/~irimie/index2.htm
Abstract:
AdbBioFuels is an innovative approach of biofuels. This project covers all the features of the Partnership Program; sub-program “Applied Research Collaborative Projects”. Its thematic area is “Energy” under the research direction 2.1 “Sustainable energy systems and technologies, energy security”, aligning with the reserch topic 2.1.4 “Promotion of clean energy technology, environment protection measures and reducing of the greenhouse gas emissions”.
The importance of this research area is ruled by the “Renewable Energy Directive” implemented by EU in 2009; the Directive stipulates the utilization, by 2020, of carting fuels produced from regenerable sources.
Our original approach targets the obtaining of a biodiesel type fuel, which simultaneously exploit both the molasses resulted in the sugar production and the glycerinous waters resulted in the conventional biodiesel technology, into a highly efficient, integrated chemobiocatalytic process.
Actually, the project aims the achievement of five objectives, successively developed at laboratory scale and at scale-up level:
• A chemocatalytic methodology for obtaining 5-hydroxymethylfurfural from molasse. Here we will develop a selective catalyst and a way of purifying and stabilizing the product.
• A methodology of assisted biocatalysis using baker’s yeast grown on molasse, to condense the pyruvic acid produced in the metabolism, with 5-hydroxy-methylfurfural.
• A methodology for the acetalization of hydroxymethylfurfural with glycerol, and of the aldole obtained in the previous step with different aldehydes to obtain hydroxy acetals with furanic structure.
• A methodology for enzymatic and chemical acylation of the hydroxy acetals obtained in the previous step, with acyl groups from natural sources, to increase the reduction grade of the derivatized furanic core.
• The development of a feasibility study for the obtaining of the advanced biofuel by exploiting the molasses and glycerol resulted as industrial byproducts.
Besides the actual state of the art, the project as a whole will ensure:
• A better valorization of the molasses and glycerol (both industrial byproducts),
• The reduction of the fossil fuel dependency, by replacing it with advanced biofuels,
• Biofuels with improved properties (freezing point, viscosity, volatility, CFPP, solubility in water etc.),
• Promoting new, cheaper technologies to obtain advanced biofuels,
• A reduction of the negative impact of the carting (transportation) field on the environment, by using a renewable source of energy, produced in greenway.
The project will be capitalized through patents, publishing of scientific papers in high impact journals, scientific communications.
The research team of the project consists of three groups coming from complementary research areas and having strong scientific achievements, which provide a complex integration of their expertise, oriented towards the achievement of the project’s objectives:
a) the Biocatalysis group from the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, known and recognized at international level, with more than 100 publications in the area of biocatalysis, including biofuels,
b) the ICPAO group from Medias, a research group dedicated to catalytic organic synthesis, and
c) The group from ICECHIM Bucharest, with a wide expertize in elaborating technologies for the obtaining of biofuels from different renewable sources.
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Biocatalyst - click chemistry downstreaming tandem based innovative kit for optically pure fine chemicals synthesis
Call name:
Joint Applied Research Projects - PCCA 2013 - call
PN-II-PT-PCCA-2013-4-0734
2014
-
2017
Role in this project:
Coordinating institution:
UNIVERSITATEA POLITEHNICA TIMIŞOARA
Project partners:
UNIVERSITATEA POLITEHNICA TIMIŞOARA (RO); UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO); NATURAL INGREDIENTS R & D S.R.L. (RO)
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)
Project website:
http://www.chim.upt.ro/ro/cercetare/proiecte-de-cercetare/145-pn-ii-pt-pcca-2013-4-0734
Abstract:
Biocatalysis reprezents an important tool to implement new, efficient, selective, cost effective and greener technologies, defining a new strategy in the industry of the future. For industrial applications, the stability and reusability of the biocatalysts are important requirements which can be achieved by immobilization, improving also their activity and selectivity. Optimization of the biocatalytic function, as well as the biocatalytic process design became essential topics in industrial biotechnology.
In the forthcoming period, a strong impact of industrial biotechnology can be expected in the fine chemicals sector. As lipases demonstrated the highest application capability among industrial enzymes, the efforts to improve their operational stability and catalytic efficiency led to a remarkable development of the immobilization methods. Certainly, the manufacturing of high value optically active compounds represent the main large-scale process where biocatalysis with lipases will replace the presently employed procedures. Enzymatic kinetic resolution (EKR) of the racemic mixtures represents the most efficient way to obtain high optical purity compounds. However, in large scale EKR an important challenge remain the isolation and purification of the products, which generally involves expensive and laborious physical procedures, decreasing the global process yields and the optical purities of the isolated compounds.
To the best of our knowledge the use of click chemistry involving large carriers, as a tool for easy EKR product separation is still unknown and it could be a practical solution for the efficient large scale isolation and purification of the enzymatic resolution products. Performing the click reaction between a preactivated polymer and one of the appropriate functionalized reaction product in the enzyme free reaction mixture obtained by EKR, would circumvent the tedious isolation and purification procedures.
The project main objective is to develop an innovative kit for efficient and cost-effective sequential continuous flow large-scale (multigram) preparation of optically pure chiral building blocks useful for synthesis of pharmaceutical compounds and agricultural chemicals, based on the tailor-made immobilized lipases mediated kinetic resolution of various racemic substrates and a subsequent click chemistry like efficient downstreaming of the reaction mixture. Such an innovative approach of coupling kinetic resolution of a broad range of racemic substrates with click chemistry type downstreaming was not yet carried out. One of the main technical barriers of large-scale utilization of biocatalysts is the lack of generic catalysts and procedures, as usually an immobilized biocatalyst is designed only for a certain application. Implementation of this project will allow surmounting this bottleneck by developing a solid-phase catalytic block with high activity and selectivity, needing only fine tuning of the process parameters, together with a downstreaming procedure and click chemistry carrier that will allow the efficient separation of the optically active product. The immobilized biocatalysts can be used in continuous flow bioreactors and under harsher reaction conditions.
The use of immobilized biocatalysts-click chemistry doawnstream process tandem will permit to design easily scaled-up continuous flow procedures for industrial manufacturing of the target compounds: (hetero)aril-ethanols, amines, hydroxy- and amino acids, underlining the economic relevance of the project proposal. Our products will significantly decrease the production costs of newly developed enantiopure building blocks due to the achievable high enantiomer selectivity (E) values and yields.
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Development of novel stereoselective biocatalysts for economic synthesis of chiral building blocks
Call name:
Joint Applied Research Projects - PCCA-2011 call, Type 1
PN-II-PT-PCCA-2011-3.1-1268
2012
-
2016
Role in this project:
Coordinating institution:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI
Project partners:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO); UNIVERSITATEA TEHNICĂ "GHEORGHE ASACHI" IAŞI (RO); INSTITUTUL NATIONAL DE CERCETARE-DEZVOLTARE PENTRU OPTOELECTRONICA INOE 2000 INCD (RO)
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)
Project website:
http://chem.ubbcluj.ro/~mtosa
Abstract:
Novel lipases with usual and opposite selectivity (anti-Kauzlauskas’ rule) immobilized in different forms, encapsulated whole cell ketoreductase systems with various stereoselectivity as "off-the-self" tools will be developed and different chiral building blocks will be prepared. We are planning to test 5-8 different immobilization techniques that may influence and enhance the productivity, stability, enantiomer selectivity of the applied biocatalyst.The application of enzyme immobilization technologies makes the bioconversation economically feasible and comparable to the synthetic solutions therefore increases the economical benefits. Finally, we plan to develop KITs containing several lipases immobilized in different forms. Development of the so called off-the-shelf products would change the habitual approach of synthetic chemists since the use of such a biocatalyst is easier than a synthetic chemical reaction with the required specifity and selectivity. These enzymes and enzyme products might be superior in synthetic biotransformations over the commercialized thermophilic fungal lipases with respest to the degree of enantiomer selectivity or direction/degree of enantiotopic selectivity.
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Immobilized wild type and mutant ammonia lyases and amino mutases for production of alfa- and beta-phenylalanine analogs
Call name:
Exploratory Research Projects - PCE-2011 call
PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0799
2012
-
2016
Role in this project:
Key expert
Coordinating institution:
Universitatea Babes-Bolyai, Cluj Napoca
Project partners:
Universitatea Babes-Bolyai, Cluj Napoca (RO)
Affiliation:
Universitatea Babes-Bolyai, Cluj Napoca (RO)
Project website:
http://chem.ubbcluj.ro/~paizs
Abstract:
The goal of the proposed project is to explore/develop heat stable/protease resistant native and immobilized wild type (from various sources) and mutant phenylalanine ammonia- lyase (PAL) and –mutase (PAM) for biocatalysis. Based on the considerations regarding the stability differences between eukaryotic and prokaryotic PAL, a modified PAL construct, containing the catalytic domain of the eukaryotic PAL and the C-terminal domain of a bacterial PAL, will be assembled. The strategy of removing the destabilizing C-terminal region will be used to obtain more heat and protease resistant PAM enzymes, which are known so far only from eukaryotic sources. Successful execution of the proposed work will provide highly active, stable enzymes with broad substrate tolerance for the production of unnatural enantiopure (R)- and (S)-alfa- and beta-arylalanines, which are interesting building blocks for chemical and pharmaceutical synthesis. The use of immobilized PAL and PAM will permit the design of easily scaled-up continuous flow procedures for industrial manufacturing of the target compounds.
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Continous flow enzymatic dynamic kinetic resolutions for stereoselective bioorganic processes.
Call name:
Exploratory Research Projects - PCE-2011 call
PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0775
2011
-
2016
Role in this project:
Key expert
Coordinating institution:
Universitatea Babes-Bolyai
Project partners:
Universitatea Babes-Bolyai (RO)
Affiliation:
Project website:
http://chem.ubbcluj.ro/~irimie/index1.htm
Abstract:
The main objective of the present proposal is to achieve new enzymatic DKR procedures for the enantioselective synthesis of both enantiomers of alfa- and beta-aryl-alanines, aryl-amines and aryl-hydroxy-propanoates using batch and continuous flow procedures. For the successful execution of the project the biocatalytic potential of several lipases will be investigated. Moreover, the selection strains which could produce hydrolases with opposite selectivity will be taking into consideration. The production, purification, characterization and immobilization of such kind of (S)-selective enzymes together with other know (R)-selective lipases will allow the elaboration of efficient batch DKR procedures. The found optimal conditions will be the prerequisite for building various type of continuous flow procedures for a more efficient production of various enantiopure chiral building blocks.
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THE VALORIFICATION OF ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL OF SOME HYDROPHILIC AND LIPOPHILIC PHYTOCHEMICALS FROM AGRO-INDUSTRIAL ROMANIAN BIOPROCESSED WASTES
Call name:
Postdoctoral Research Projects - PD-2012 call
PN-II-RU-PD-2012-3-0245
2013
-
2015
Role in this project:
Key expert
Coordinating institution:
PROPLANTA SRL
Project partners:
PROPLANTA SRL (RO)
Affiliation:
PROPLANTA SRL (RO)
Project website:
http://evadulf.wix.com/pn-ii-ru-pd-2012-3
Abstract:
Canning and beverages industry wastes, which consist mainly of seeds and peels, have attracted considerable attention as potential sources of natural anti-oxidants such as phenolic compounds, tocopherols, carotenoids, and different class of lipids. The aim of this study is to obtain an overview of the health-beneficial ingredients remaining in the abundant and cheap residues of various solid-state pre-fermented (SSF) (with two fungal species, Aspergillus and Rhizopus) stone-fruit agro-industrial wastes (e.g. plum (Prunus domestica L.), apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.)) and berry press residues (with special focus on sea buckthorn Hippophae rhamnoides L., ssp. Carpatica) in order to determine the quantity and quality of their health-promoting antioxidant capacity. The project objectives are: determination of physical–chemical and microbiological characteristics of agro-food wastes as carriers in SSF; compositional analysis of oils; evaluation of phenolic compounds accumulation and total antioxidant capacity of both hydrophilic and lipophilic extracts from SS fermented stone fruit and berry wastes; mathematical modeling and optimization of fermentation/extraction processes in order to understand the mechanisms and relationships between substrates and strains and to simulate different scenarios.
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Call name:
Premierea obtinerii atestatului de abilitare - Competitia 2015
PN-II-RU-ABIL-2015-2-0004
2015
-
Role in this project:
Coordinating institution:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI
Project partners:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)
Project website:
Abstract:
Read more
FILE DESCRIPTION
DOCUMENT
List of research grants as project coordinator or partner team leader
Significant R&D projects for enterprises, as project manager
R&D activities in enterprises
Peer-review activity for international programs/projects
[T: 0.4598, O: 273]