A goal of technology in the 21st century is to become more environmentally friendly. For this reason, industrial technology based on a viewpoint of green chemistry is indispensable, and this is why the 21st century is said to be the century of biotechnology. Expectations of biotechnology to solve various difficult problems such as destruction of the global environment, the serious food shortage, and the energy problem are quite high from the standpoint of safety, economy, and the environment.
Biotechnology and enzymes are inseparable. Enzyme based biocatalytic reactions are a key technology from the viewpoint of green chemistry, and the expectations for the use of enzymes is wide-ranging over various fields including purifying the environment, reusing resources, creating new industrial processes, creating new functional foods, and contributing to medical treatments.
The future of enzymes is bright judging from the viewpoint of expectations. The life sciences are rapidly progressing and will soon develop more powerful super-enzymes and allow the utilization of enzymes in harmony with other technologies. This will be possible with the search for new enzymes or highly functional enzyme proteins through analysis of structures and elucidation of mechanisms on a genetic level by the use of IT technology. All of these developments will contribute to an improvement of life for humankind.
