Sulfotransferases (STs) are ubiquitous enzymes found in all living organisms. These enzymes convert amines to sulfamates, and alcohols to sulfates, on a wide variety of biologically relevant molecules...

Team behind tool hope to dramatically reduce the experimental workload of scientists using directed evolution to develop biocatalysts

Studies on protein–protein interactions using proteins containing d- or l-amino acids show that stereoselectivity of binding varies with the degree of disorder within the complex.

Researchers engineered an enzyme to wrangle multiple radicals with high stereoselectivity

De novo design of protein catalysts with high efficiency and stereoselectivity provides an attractive approach toward the design of environmentally benign catalysts. Here, we design proteins that inco...

Oxidative reactions of a chiral molecular segment of carbon nanotubes afforded a chiral macrocycle with multiple stereogenic units. The cylinder chirality originally described by a single descriptor o...

Nature - Studies on protein–protein interactions using proteins containing d- or l-amino acids show that stereoselectivity of binding varies with the degree of disorder within the complex.

Stereoselective ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of enantiomerically pure 2,3-dicarbomethoxynorborn-5-ene ((+)-DCMNBE) was accomplished by the action of cationic tetra- and pentacoordinated molybdenum imido alkylidene cyclic alkyl amino carbene (CAAC) complexes that are chiral at molybdenum. The same catalysts were also utilized to perform the ROMP of 2,3-dimethoxymethylnorborn-5-ene ((+)-DMMNBE). All complexes were moderately to highly active and showed high trans-isoselectivity, offering up to 97% trans-isotactic (it) repeat units. In all cases, tetracoordinated complexes were the active species, resulting in pentacoordinated transition states. A theoretical model was elaborated using the buried volume (% Vbur) values of all ligands from single-crystal X-ray analysis together with the structures of the density functional theory (DFT) generated molybdacyclobutane intermediates. The model demonstrates the steric effects of all ligands at molybdenum on the trans-isoselectivity of the reaction, as predicted by the turnstile mechanism, and includes a positive correlation between the bulky CAAC ligand with high values of % Vbur of the other ligands and a high trans-isoselectivity. It was also successfully extended to molybdenum imido alkylidene N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) complexes, proved to be of sufficient accuracy with a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 6.19% and was verified by Monte Carlo cross-validation (MCCV).

PhD Project - Funded PhD open to UK-domiciled, home fee applicants of Black African, Black Caribbean or other Black or mixed Black heritage - Predicting biocatalyst stereoselectivity using biomolecula...

Alkyne- and alkene-tethered acyl fluorides undergo intramolecular carbofluorination via fluoride recycling using catalytic TrBF4. Excellent stereoselectivity is observed for the alkyne addition, enabling access to novel fluorinated indan-2-ones (all ≥95:5 E/Z) and cyclopentan-2-ones (85:15 E/Z). Fluorinated chroman-2-ones and tertiary alkyl fluorides can also be synthesized using this method, comparing favorably to previously reported protocols that employ expensive metal catalysts under harsher conditions.

De novo-designed enzymes have recently achieved high catalytic activity and stereoselectivity while demonstrating exceptional thermostability in entirely novel protein scaffolds. Among these, α-helica...

Researchers engineered an enzyme to wrangle multiple radicals with high stereoselectivity

3-component reaction mediated by enzyme and photocatalyst does mix-and-match chemistry