Industrial Enzyme Research Contributing to “Kirei Life for People, Society, and the Planet”

At Kao, we have been doing research and development on our original enzymes for detergents and their production technologies more over 30 years, and have applied the outcomes to products such as laundry detergents.

In researching enzyme development, we have been screening microorganisms with expected enzymatic activities, designing enzyme sequences using databases, and using in silico technology to efficiently enhance the required function.
Kao aims to reduce the time and work required to screen enzyme sequences and improve enzyme properties, and to develop enzymes with improved activity, storage stability, and other characteristics important for product performance.
In research on developing the manufacturing technology for enzymes, we have been working on establishing technology that can realize industrially possible production levels for any protein materials by utilizing not only fermentation engineering studies with Bacillus subtilis and filamentous fungi, but also multi-omics analysis that combines proteome, metabolome, and metabolic flux analyses at the time of protein production, and is used for multitiered understanding of phenomena^*1,2 .

Recently, Kao has also been working on not only the use of enzymes for our products but also the development of biomass saccharification enzymes through industry-government-academia collaboration. This involves applying our high enzymatic development technology to help bring about a recycling-oriented society in the future^*3,4 .