Discovery of Sialidases with Transglycosylation Activity and Rational Engineering of Their Catalytic Pockets for Efficient Synthesis of 6'-Sialyllactose.

Summary: Human breast milk contains special healthy sugars that are great for babies. Scientists want to make these exact sugars in factories to add to baby formula, but it is very hard to do. To solve this, they looked at bacteria from the human gut and found special microscopic tools called enzymes that can build these sugars. One enzyme, named BiS47, was the best at the job. By using computers to study its shape and making tiny changes to its structure, they made the enzyme work more than twice as fast! This new method will help make healthier baby formula much easier and cheaper.