Development of chemo-biocatalytic cascades for industrial synthesis

Natural and engineered biocatalysts are already having impact in the manufacture of high value pharmaceuticals by catalysing the conversion of functional groups in high yield.

The use of enzymes for organic synthesis will be more routine once their limitations, such as narrow substrate range, are overcome.

The range of chemical transformations displayed by enzymes continues to grow, fuelled by the discovery of new enzymes involved in natural product biosynthesis and accelerated by genome sequencing.

Once a new enzyme is selected, modern enzyme engineering techniques (e.g. directed evolution) can be applied to generate a bespoke biocatalyst with broad synthetic utility. The impact of this technology was recognised by the award of the Nobel prize in Chemistry in 2018 to Prof. Frances Arnold.

This project will source natural enzymes from metabolic pathways and where necessary, evolve them to expand their substrate scope.

We will combine these biocatalysts with compatible chemo-catalysts to develop the synthetic utility of the optimised route(s).

We will specifically work with various biocatalysts involved in transamination, C-C bond formation and lipid modification.