This invention provides an HbA1c dehydrogenase that is capable of directly acting on hemoglobin A1c and is less likely to be influenced by oxygen concentration and a method for measurement and a kit of assay reagents using such HbA1c dehydrogenase. The HbA1c dehydrogenase having dehydrogenase activity and capable of directly acting on HbA1c is obtained by substitution of one or more amino acid residues at positions corresponding to positions 280, 269, 54, 241, and 267 of the amadoriase that is capable of directly acting on hemoglobin A1c and is derived from, for example, the genus Coniochaeta. This invention also provides a method for measurement of HbA1c, a kit of assay reagents, and a sensor using such HbA1c dehydrogenase. Such HbA1c dehydrogenase is capable of directly acting on hemoglobin A1c and has lowered oxidase activity and/or enhanced dehydrogenase activity. This not only eliminates the need for treatment of hemoglobin A1c with a protease but also enables the use of an electron mediator in the measurement of HbA1c, thereby reducing effects due to oxygen concentration, and enables HbA1c measured with high sensitivity.

Reactor for enzymatic hydrolysis of a raw material comprising in sequence: i)—a first heat exchanger adapted to heat the raw material supplied to the reactor to a temperature within a range that favours enzymatic hydrolysis, ii)—a reactor comprising plural in reactor chambers connected in series, separated by closable valves, iii)—a second heat exchanger adapted to heat the reaction mixture to a temperature higher than the temperature range favouring enzymatic hydrolysis, the reactor being formed with inclined tubular reactor chambers assembled to form a reactor with vertical axis, the first reactor chamber being the vertically uppermost chamber of the reactor, while at least one reactor chamber is adapted to be stirred with a through-flowing inert gas.

The present invention relates to FAD-GDH consisting of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or 3, an amino acid sequence having an identity of 70% or more with the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or 3, or an amino acid sequence having a deletion, substitution or addition of one or several amino acids in the amino acid sequence (the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or the amino acid sequence having an identity of 70% or more with the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1); having an amino acid substitution at the position(s) corresponding to the following amino acid(s): the amino acid at the 175th position in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, the amino acid at the 214th position in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, the amino acid at the 192nd position in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, the amino acid at the 212th position in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, the amino acid at the 218th position in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, and/or the amino acid at the 226th position in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1; and having an improved thermal stability compared to that before the substitution, provided that an FAD-GDH consisting of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 28, 30 or 32 is excluded.

The present invention relates to FAD-GDH consisting of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or 3, an amino acid sequence having an identity of 70% or more with the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or 3, or an amino acid sequence having a deletion, substitution or addition of one or several amino acids in the amino acid sequence (the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or the amino acid sequence having an identity of 70% or more with the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1); having an amino acid substitution at the position(s) corresponding to the following amino acid(s): the amino acid at the 175th position in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, the amino acid at the 214th position in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, the amino acid at the 192nd position in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, the amino acid at the 212th position in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, the amino acid at the 218th position in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, and/or the amino acid at the 226th position in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1; and having an improved thermal stability compared to that before the substitution, provided that an FAD-GDH consisting of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 28, 30 or 32 is excluded.

An object of the present invention is to reduce error reaction that is not derived from enzyme reaction in a method for measuring histamine using histamine dehydrogenase. The present invention provides a kit for detecting histamine or an electrochemical sensor capable of detecting the oxidation of histamine, comprising (i) histamine dehydrogenase, and (ii-a) boric acid or a salt thereof, and/or a boronic acid or a salt thereof, and/or (ii-b) alkyl sulfate. The present invention also provides a method for detecting histamine using (i) histamine dehydrogenase, and (ii-a) boric acid or a salt thereof, and/or a boronic acid or a salt thereof, or (ii-b) sodium laurel sulfate, or using an electrochemical sensor capable of detecting the oxidation of histamine, comprising these components.

A rotating drum apparatus for the mixing and processing of materials, the rotating drum apparatus comprising: a rotating drum (12) arranged with the length of the drum and the axis of rotation of the drum extending along the horizontal; an inlet at a first point on the drum (12) for receiving materials prior to mixing and/or processing; a screw (14) within the drum (12) for mixing the materials whilst conveying them lengthwise along the drum (12), wherein the screw (14) includes a helical blade extending along the length of the drum (12) with the outer edge of the helical blade being fixed to the inner surface of the drum (12) such that material can be conveyed and mixed in separated volumes (16) between each turn of the screw blade (14); an outlet at a second point along the drum for discharge of materials after mixing and/or processing; and a plurality mixing devices (18) for promoting mixing of the material in each of the separated volumes (16) of material as the material is conveyed along the screw (14), wherein the plurality of mixing devices (18) are spaced apart along the blade of the screw (14), and wherein there is at least one mixing device (18) for each turn of the screw blade (14).

In a method and an apparatus for an enzymatic hydrolysis in which plant based raw material is hydrolysed by means of enzymes in at least one enzymatic hydrolysis stage. A plant based feed (1) is fed to the enzymatic hydrolysis stage (2) in which the plant based feed is hydrolysed. A liquid fraction (3) comprising carbohydrates is separated from a solid fraction (4) in a solid-liquid separation stage (11). At least a part (5) of the solid fraction (4) comprising enzymes is recirculated to the plant based feed (1) of the enzymatic hydrolysis stage (2) or to the enzymatic hydrolysis stage (2), and a rest part (6) of the solid fraction (4) is recovered. Further, the invention relates to the liquid fraction and the solid fraction and their use.

The present invention provides a novel sialo-sugar chain, a process for producing the sialo-sugar chain, and a device for producing the sialo-sugar chain. A sialo-sugar chain can be easily and efficiently mass-produced by reacting a sugar wherein a hydroxy groups is substituted with an alkynyl group (herein sometimes referred to as “alkynylated sugar”) with a specific sialic acid donor in the presence of a sialic acid-introducing enzyme.

Immobilized enzyme complexes (IEC) with enzymes that are non-covalently linked to matrices are provided along with methods for making the same. Methods of using the IEC for a wide variety of industrial enzymatic processes are also provided. Methods of converting cellulosic biomass and methods of effecting blood type conversions with the IEC are amongst the methods disclosed.

The present invention relates to a method for synthesizing an RNA molecule of a given sequence, comprising the step of determining the fraction (1) for each of the four nucleotides G, A, C and U in said RNA molecule, and the step of synthesizing said RNA molecule by in vitro transcription in a sequence-optimized reaction mix, wherein said sequence-optimized reaction mix comprises the four ribonucleoside triphosphates GTP, ATP, CTP and UTP, wherein the fraction (2) of each of the four ribonucleoside triphosphates in the sequence-optimized reaction mix corresponds to the fraction (1) of the respective nucleotide in said RNA molecule, a buffer, a DNA template, and an RNA polymerase.

Further, the present invention relates to a bioreactor (1) for synthesizing RNA molecules of a given sequence, the bioreactor (1) having a reaction module (2) for carrying out in vitro RNA transcription reactions in a sequence-optimized reaction mix, a capture module (3) for temporarily capturing the transcribed RNA molecules, and a control module (4) for controlling the infeed of components of the sequence-optimized reaction mix into the reaction module (2), wherein the reaction module (2) comprises a filtration membrane (21) for separating nucleotides from the reaction mix, and the control of the infeed of components of the sequence-optimized reaction mix by the control module (4) is based on a measured concentration of separated nucleotides.