Directed evolution of aldolases for exploitation in synthetic organic chemistry

Synthetic Organic Chemistry

Synthetic biology: lessons from the history of synthetic organic chemistry.

The mid-nineteenth century saw the development of a radical new direction in chemistry: instead of simply analyzing existing molecules, chemists began to synthesize them--including molecules that did not exist in nature. The combination of this new synthetic approach with more traditional analytical approaches revolutionized chemistry, leading to a deep understanding of the fundamental principl...

5. Directed evolution of artificial metalloenzymes: bridging synthetic chemistry and biology

Directed evolution is a powerful algorithm for engineering proteins to have novel and useful properties. However, we do not yet fully understand the characteristics of an evolvable system. In this chapter, we present examples where directed evolution has been used to enhance the performance of metalloenzymes, focusing first on ‘classical’ cases such as improving enzyme stability or expanding th...

Flow Electrolysis Cells for the Synthetic Organic Chemistry Laboratory.

Electrosynthesis has much to offer to the synthetic organic chemist. But in order to be widely accepted as a routine procedure in an organic synthesis laboratory, electrosynthesis needs to be presented in a much more user-friendly way. The literature is largely based on electrolysis in a glass beaker or H-cells that often give poor performance for synthesis with a very slow rate of conversion a...

Selection platforms for directed evolution in synthetic biology

Life on Earth is incredibly diverse. Yet, underneath that diversity, there are a number of constants and highly conserved processes: all life is based on DNA and RNA; the genetic code is universal; biology is limited to a small subset of potential chemistries. A vast amount of knowledge has been accrued through describing and characterizing enzymes, biological processes and organisms. Neverthel...