ERI: Upgrading Metabolites in Bacterial Cultures with Nanomicellar Catalysts

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。有些微生物可以产生化学物质。在某些情况下，微生物比化学催化更有效，而在另一些情况下则不然。有人尝试在一个反应器中结合化学和生物催化。该项目的基本目标是设计在活微生物存在下，在水条件下和低底物浓度下起作用的催化剂支架。将催化剂限制在纳米级的隔间内将保护细胞免受催化材料和有毒反应中间体的影响。劳动力发展是另一个项目目标。为本科生和高中生开发实验室和讲座模块将是这些努力的主要重点。生物相容性化学旨在将化学催化所提供的高生产率和广泛的反应性与微生物生物合成的可持续性相结合，通过在单烧瓶过程中结合微生物代谢物的化学催化升级。然而，有限的反应工具箱（10个例子），对昂贵的金属催化剂（Pd， Ru等）的依赖，以及对催化剂毒性空间的低效探索阻碍了这一新兴领域的发展。催化剂约束在纳米胶束结构中的作用将在生物相容性硝基-醛醇、thia-Michael和Diels-Alder反应的发展中进行探讨。该项目将a)探索纳米胶束催化剂约束对生物相容性催化的影响；B)建立生物相容性催化剂的设计原则；c)扩大可从生物相容性化学获得的产品范围。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Some microbes can produce chemicals. In some instances, the microbes are more efficient than chemical catalysis, in others they are not. There are efforts to combine chemical and biological catalysis in a single reactor. The fundamental objectives of this project are to design catalyst scaffolds that function in the presence of living microbes, in aqueous conditions, and with low substrate concentrations. Confining catalysts to nanosized compartments will protect the cell from the catalytic material and toxic reaction intermediates. Workforce development is another project objective. Developing lab and lecture modules for undergraduate and high school students will be a primary focus of those efforts.Biocompatible chemistry seeks to combine the high productivity and broad reactivity afforded by chemical catalysis with the sustainability of microbial biosynthesis by combining chemocatalytic upgrading of microbial metabolites in single-flask processes. However, a limited reaction toolbox (10 examples), reliance on expensive metal catalysts (Pd, Ru, etc.), and inefficient exploration of the catalyst toxicity space has hampered the progress of this nascent field. The role of catalyst confinement in nanomicellar architectures will be explored in the development of biocompatible nitro-aldol, thia-Michael, and Diels-Alder reactions. The project will a) explore the effect of nanomicelle catalyst confinement on biocompatible catalysis; b) establish catalyst-design principles specific to biocompatible catalysts; and c) expand the scope of products available from biocompatible chemistry.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.