News

We set out to explore how far fatty acid synthases (FAS) can be repurposed for reactions unrelated to natural fatty-acid production. So, Felix, Nadja and Caro investigated whether FAS could produce styrylpyrones, precursor molecules for compounds such as kavalactones, which have anxiety-reducing effects. They succeeded with only a few modifications: altering the ketosynthase subunit to accept cinnamic acid as a starter and removing a section of the enzyme unnecessary for the desired non-reductive extension. Just two changes were enough to open an entirely new reaction pathway.

See link: https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202511726

Congratulations to Felix, Nadja and Caro! 🎉👏

How is the conformational dynamics of mammalian FAS coordinated with catalysis? Recent structural insights have begun to reveal how conformational transitions in mFAS influence catalytic efficiency and domain–domain communication.

This review dives into the latest breakthroughs uncovering the structural and conformational secrets of mammalian fatty acid synthase (FAS). Instead of providing a broad overview, we spotlight the remarkable dynamic shifts that FAS undergoes as it drives the fatty acid synthesis cycle forward.

Link to review: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibs.2025.09.005

Our new lab website 🌐 is now online! There you can find the latest information about 📚 research projects, 📰 publications, and 👥 team members.

Thanks to the TEAM FRESH for setting up the website.

We are excited to welcome Sonia and André to our lab as PhD candidates! Sonia will be engineering enzyme assembly lines and André start with our SCALE project (https://scale-frankfurt.org/) on chemoenzymatic vesicle synthesis. We are looking forward to seeing your projects take shape. It’s great to have you on board! 🚀

We are excited to welcome Xiaowei Shen to our lab. Xiaowei is PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering and Technology, advised by Prof. Tianwei Tan. He will stay three months and work on establishing computational methods for predicting protein function from sequence. Great to have here. We look forward to the collaboration! 🎉

Multimethyl- and mid-chain–branched fatty acids (FAs) have been identified in various metazoans, including the preen gland of birds, human vernix, sebum, and adipocytes. Evidence suggests that these branched chains are generated by fatty acid synthase (FAS). In our recent work, we provide enzymatic detail of how FAS produces branched FAs. Moreover, we uncover that specific coding within the enzymatic domain, responsible for forming the carbon–carbon bond, accounts for the diverse branching patterns observed.

Congratulation Chris, Kim, Ziheng and Damian 🎉