Research

Enzyme Engineering

Our lab focuses on engineering enzymes with enhanced catalytic efficiency, stability, and functionality for both fundamental understanding and industrial application. We develop the core engineering toolkit needed for this work, including high-performance in vivo selection platforms, mechanistic strategies for catalytic-residue reprogramming, and machine-learning–guided design workflows powered by advanced protein language models. These approaches allow us to explore sequence space more intelligently, redesign enzyme active sites, and create catalysts capable of operating under harsh or non-native conditions. Building on this foundation, we engineer industrial-grade biocatalysts—such as next-generation PET hydrolases and other robust enzymes—for sustainable manufacturing, environmental remediation, and next-generation synthetic-biology systems.

Representative paper:

1. Vajanapanich P, Nearmnala P, Parkbhorn J, Nutho B, Rungrotmongkol T, Hongdilokkul N.
   Catalytic Residue Reprogramming Enhances Enzyme Activity at Alkaline pH via Phenolate-Mediated Proton Transfer. ACS Synthetic Biology. 2025;14(9):3612–3623. doi: 10.1021/acssynbio.5c00379
   https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssynbio.5c00379 

2. Nearmnala P, Thanaburakorn M, Panbangred W, Chaiyen P, Hongdilokkul N.
   An in vivo selection system with tightly regulated gene expression enables directed evolution of highly efficient enzymes. Scientific Reports. 2021;11(1):11669. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-91204-4
   https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-91204-4 

Molecular Toolkits for Synthetic Biology

Our lab builds the genetic control systems that make advanced synthetic biology possible. We focus on redesigning allosteric transcription factors—especially TetR-based regulators—into programmable biosensors that convert molecular signals into defined gene-expression outputs. These engineered regulators support the creation of tunable inducible promoters, modular regulatory circuits, and biocontainment systems that tightly control microbial behavior.

To support real-world applications, we build toolkits optimized for Bacillus and other Gram-positive bacteria, including host-specific regulatory elements and expression modules that function reliably across industrial chassis. Together, these molecular tools enable robust genetic programming, safer strain deployment, and next-generation microbial platforms for biomanufacturing, environmental sensing, and applied synthetic biology.

Microbial Cell Factories and Biocatalysis

We engineer microbes into efficient production platforms by redesigning the metabolic and genetic pathways required for heme–protein biosynthesis. Our work focuses on improving the microbial heme supply, engineering myoglobin and supporting enzymes, and building optimized expression architectures that enable high-level production of functional myoglobin in bacterial hosts. By tuning pathway flux, improving cofactor incorporation, and enhancing protein performance, we create robust microbial strains capable of generating recombinant myoglobin suitable for emerging food-biotechnology and alternative-protein applications. This strain-centered, molecular-level engineering framework forms the basis for building next-generation microbial cell factories that support sustainable biomanufacturing.