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Published online 31 July 2003 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news030728-7
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Artificially evolved protein destroys nerve gas
Bacterial enzyme tweaked to dismember chemical-warfare agent.
Chemists in the United States have modified a common bacterial enzyme so that it pulls apart a lethal nerve agent manufactured as a chemical weapon.
Frank Raushel, of Texas A&M University in College Station, and colleagues tuned the enzyme phosphotriesterase to destroy the nerve gas soman1.
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