Maria-Regina Kula (born 16 March 1937) is an inventor. She was one of the two prize winners of the German Future Prize in 2002. Also in 2002, she was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to the understanding and practice of enzyme-based chemical processes and protein separations.
Awarded by the President of Germany, and worth 250,000 euros,[1] the prize helps to identify projects which are of high scientific value and, more importantly, have concrete applications and are already developed to a point of readiness for commercial applications. Kula was awarded the prize as a leading developer of inexpensive biocatalysts through the use of genetically opimised enzymes. Together with her co-researcher, Martina Pohl, she successfully isolated formate dehydrogenase (FDH) from the yeast "Candida boidinii", enabling manufacturers to develop and produce new drugs and other chemical products on a large scale in a way which is both environmentally sound and cost-effective.[2][3][4]