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BIOCATALYSIS

Building enzymes from scratch

Combining computational design with directed evolution has the potential to deliver enzymes with new functions, yet so far de novo catalysts have been limited to a handful of model transformations. Now, a primitive computationally designed enzyme has been remodelled into an efficient enantioselective catalyst for the Morita–Baylis–Hillman reaction.

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Fig. 1: A designed enzyme for the Morita–Baylis–Hillman reaction.

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Correspondence to Elaine O’Reilly.

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O’Reilly, E. Building enzymes from scratch. Nat. Chem. 14, 246–248 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-021-00884-y

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