Yangtze River Daily Wuhan Client September 24th 9th Yangtze River Daily reporter learned from Huazhong University of Science and Technology that the team of Professor Zhong Fangrui and Wu Yuzhou of the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of the school have made important research progress in the field of artificial photoenzyme catalysis. They used the cutting-edge synthetic biology technology to chemically transform the protein, introduced photocatalyst , which does not exist in nature, and created the world's first artificial photoenzyme with an energy transfer mechanism.
This research result was recently published in Nature.
According to reports, as an protein , enzymes require its participation in almost all life activities, and can be seen everywhere in daily life. For example, washing clothes mainly depends on enzymes to remove dirt; cheese is added to rennet to coagulate milk; the food eaten is also degraded starch, protein, etc. through the action of various hydrolase in saliva and gastric juice, so that it can be absorbed by the human body. However, these enzymes are already present in nature, and the objects that can act are natural oils, starches, proteins, etc. In production and life, more synthetic chemicals, such as various synthetic new materials, chemicals, etc., cannot be produced through enzymes or degraded by enzymes.
With people's emphasis on the ecological environment and green and sustainable development, using enzymes closer to nature to process and synthesize chemicals and replace traditional high-pollution and high-energy consumption chemical production methods is becoming a new development trend. This requires more enzymes to adapt to the synthesis and production of non-natural products.
The world's first artificial photoenzyme with the energy transfer mechanism created by the team of Professor Zhong Fangrui and Wu Yuzhou, breaks through the limitations that enzymes can only be used for the production of natural products, allowing enzymes to be used in the production of chemical drugs, new materials and other non-natural synthetic chemicals. Artificial photoenzymes integrate the advantages of both the unique reactivity of chemical catalysts and the specific selectivity of biocatalyst , providing a new strategy to solve the challenging problem of chiral photoreaction.
scientific research team is at work.
"In the early stage of screening, no one knows whether the ideal enzyme can be obtained, which tests whether the researchers have firm beliefs and stress resistance. Only long-term persistent attempts and patient and meticulous data analysis can create the ultimate ideal enzyme." Professor Zhong Fangrui introduced that since this is an unknown new type of reaction, even the most advanced computing simulation algorithms cannot accurately predict it. In response, the research team invested multiple research teams to construct multiple promising proteins from the perspective of theoretical simulation, and conducted a large number of screening of "seed players" based on the substrate library of a large number of photochemical reactions that have been constructed in the laboratory.
Finding the promising protein skeleton and reaction types is just the "first step in the Long March". Professor Wu Yuzhou admitted that another challenge in research is the need to break the barriers of discipline boundaries and use theoretical knowledge and technical methods in multiple disciplines such as organic synthesis , genetic engineering, protein engineering , structural biology and enzyme theoretical calculation. This process also fully utilizes the students' personalized chemistry background characteristics. "Many students in our research group have a interdisciplinary background. During the entire research process, we learned from each other and learned from each other's strengths and weaknesses, which not only significantly broadened the interdisciplinary knowledge of each member of the team, but also allowed research to continue to make progress."
scientific research team is working.
reporter learned that the project has been launched in 2019 and is one of the earliest universities in China to propose such research ideas. The research direction that combines synthesis concepts with biological mechanisms has also been considered an important trend in the future development of synthetic chemistry and is receiving more and more attention. "Although my country's research in this regard started slightly later than internationally, a large number of scholars have invested in related research and achieved certain results. It should be said that they can already be on par with the international research level." Zhong Fangrui said.
It is understood that the development of enzymes with non-natural catalytic activity is the key to the green biomanufacturing industry's ability to expand from natural product production to non-natural chemical production.In the future, more and more chemicals will be expected to be produced by enzyme catalyzed methods. In the traditional impression, chemical plants with chimneys may increasingly be replaced by mild green bioprocessing methods. Green biomanufacturing has low energy consumption, non-toxic and harmless, and is more environmentally friendly. It will become a new trend in the future development of the chemical industry, and is of great strategic significance for my country to take the new industrialization path of and achieve green wealth growth and sustainable social and economic development.
(Changjiang Daily reporter Chen Xiaotong, correspondent Gao Xiang, Wang Yidi)
[Editor: Zhao Ke]
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