Hasan Arsın

As a molecular biologist within the Deep Sea Biology research group, my research focus rests on the discovery and study of enzymes from marine microorganisms, particularly from hydrothermal vent ecosystems. I make use of sequence-based discovery approaches, in silico predictions of function and structure, in tandem with recombinant methods to produce and characterize chosen enzymes in the laboratory.

Hydrothermal vent systems are known to sustain a large diversity of microbes adapted to life even at extremes of physical and chemical conditions (such as temperature, pH, salinity). Such organisms naturally use enzymes adapted to function and sustain their metabolic functions under these conditions – making them particularly interesting targets for both basic and applied research.

Study of these enzymes can teach us about the metabolism and life habits of their host organisms and their molecular adaptations to function in their niche; help expand the limits of previously known enzyme classes, and potentially lead to products and applications with tangible uses in both research and industrial settings.

Within the INDEPTH project consortium, my focus is on the discovery, and recombinant production of various Protease and Nuclease families of enzymes – in addition to implementing state-of-the-art functional assays to facilitate their characterization.