Origin

The idea of HoliZyme was developed in the Biotechnology department of Applied Sciences at TU Delft during a discussion with Prof. Frank Hollmann and Hugo Brasselet. Quickly, two ideas lead to the creation of HoliZyme.

On the one hand, the patent of cosmetic alcohols presented a huge potential of applications and directly brought uniqueness to HoliZyme. Indeed, the process had been proven and represents a unique way of producing a new range of natural products for the cosmetic industry.

On the second hand, peroxygenases for the one of the OxyCat Group has well-known expertise was the second added value for the company.

Peroxygenases, a game changer

Indeed, peroxygenases are relatively stable and active, making them a good candidate for industrial applications. Looking at the market, several actors in the biocatalytic field focus on protein engineering to modify (and improve) enzymes toward a dedicated solution. Chemists by formation, we decided to focus on the chemical reaction and, looking at the application potential together with the number of available peroxygenases, the idea of a platform technology has emerged.

A complementary team

How to start a company in the 21st century, in a competitive market, without computational expertise? At HoliZyme, we are meticulous with data management and use software as a means to make product development faster and less expensive for our customers. This will be made possible by generating and updating a database of chemical reactions and standardizing the lab-scale development. Since the foundation, Alessandro Duico joins the adventure as a computational engineer.

The missing piece of our team to reach the market is a business developer. More recently, Mats Warmerdam joined HoliZyme to develop and structure the business part and look for investors.

Finally, HoliZyme stands at the interface of three disciplines (chemistry, biology, and computational engineering) and has a complementary team to bring innovation and novelty to the chemical industry.