Research lead | Development opportunity
Acrylic glass or polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) could be made from natural raw materials such as sugars, alcohols or fatty acids. Currently, PMMA is manufactured by polymerising methyl methacrylate (MMA). Now scientists at the University of Duisburg-Essen and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research have found an enzyme which could be used to produce a precursor of MMA from renewable natural materials, rather than a petrochemical.
The enzyme, discovered by Thore Rohwerder and Roland H. Müller, 2-hydroxyisobutyryl-CoA mutase, makes it possible to turn a linear C4 carbon structure into a branched one. Compounds of this type are precursors of MMA.
This discovery should allow renewable raw materials to be used as a basis for MMA synthesis.
Receive the Funding Newswire each Tuesday, our Policy Bulletin each Thursday, and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
A unique international forum for public research organisations and companies to connect their external engagement with strategic interests around their R&D system.