Developing novel enzymatic cascades for carbon-carbon bond formation

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The selective formation of carbon-carbon bonds is a crucial method in synthetic and medicinal chemistry. However, traditional catalysts suffer from poor selectivity and the requirement for toxic or hazardous reagents. Nature, however, solves the problem of carbon-carbon bond formation by using enzymes. These biocatalysts act under mild, aqueous conditions, can act selectively, and have low negative environmental impact. In this project, you will develop a biocatalytic system for carbon-carbon bond formation originally derived from plants. You will express and purify enzymes using a variety of heterologous systems and synthesise potential substrates. Then, you will examine the scope of the biocatalytic system, exploring conditions and characterizing the products. You will also use crystallography to determine enzyme structures and then mutagenesis to engineer the enzymes.