Helping green biological manufacturing, major progress has been made in the research of artificial optical enzymes in the Chinese team

The Yangtze River Daily Da Wuhan Client September 24th. On September 24th, a reporter from the Yangtze River Daily learned from Huazhong University of Science and Technology that the school's school of chemistry and chemical engineering Zhong Fangrui and Professor Wu Yuzhou have achieved important research progress in the field of artificial optical enzyme catalytic. They used synthetic biology frontiers to chemically modify protein, introduced the optical catalysts that did not exist in nature, and created artificial optical enzymes in the world to the world's energy transfer mechanism.

The results of this research have been published in Nature recently.

According to reports, enzymes, as a protein with bio -catalytic, almost all life activities require its participation, and can be seen everywhere in daily life. For example, laundry is mainly dirty by enzymes; cheese rely on adding condensed lactase to condense milk; the food you eat is also degraded through the role of saliva and gastric juice in the effect of various hydrolyzed enzymes in the gastric juice Essence However, these enzymes are originally available in nature, and the objects that can work are natural oils, starch, protein, etc. In production and life, more synthetic chemicals, such as various synthetic new materials, chemicals, etc., cannot be produced through enzymes, nor can they be degraded by enzymes.

With the emphasis on the ecological environment and the sustainable development of the green environment, it is becoming a new development trend with a chemical method that is closer to natural enzymes to process synthetic chemicals and replace traditional high -pollution and high energy consumption. This requires more enzymes to adapt to the synthesis and production of non -natural products.

The artificial optical enzymes of the world's first energy transfer mechanism created by Zhong Fangrui and Wu Yuzhou's team, breaking the limitations of enzymes that can only be used for natural product production, enzymes can be used for chemical drugs, new materials and other non -natural synthesis Production of chemicals. Artificial optical enzymes integrate the unique reaction of chemical catalysts and the advantages of the specific selectivity of biocatalysts, which provides a new strategy for solving the challenging problem of hand optical reactions.

The scientific research team is at work.

"In the early days of screening, no one knows whether they can get the ideal enzymes. Test whether the researchers have a firm belief and pressure resistance. Only by long -term unremitting attempts and patient and meticulous data analysis can we create the final ideal of the final ideal. Enzyme. "Professor Zhong Fangrui introduced that because this is an unknown new reaction type, even the most advanced computing simulation algorithm cannot be accurately predicted. In this regard, the research team has invested a number of research teams, and has built a number of protein that is more promising from the theoretical simulation perspective, and based on a large number of optical chemical reactions that have been constructed by the laboratory. A large number of screening.

Finding the promising protein skeleton and reaction type is just "the first step of the Long March." Professor Wu Yuzhou admits that another challenge for research is to break the barriers of discipline boundaries and use theoretical knowledge and technical methods of multiple disciplines such as organic synthesis, genetic engineering, protein engineering, structural biology, and enzyme theory calculation. And this process also gives full play to the background of students' personal chemical chemistry. "Many students in our project group have a cross -disciplinary background. During the entire research process, we learn from each other and make up for each other, which not only significantly broaden the interdisciplinary knowledge of each member of the team, but also allows research to make progress."

The scientific research team is at work.

The reporter learned that the project was carried out in 2019 and was one of the earliest colleges and universities in China that put forward such research ideas. The research direction of combining synthetic concepts and biometer mechanisms has been considered an important trend of future synthetic chemistry development in recent years, and it is being paid more and more attention. "Although our country's research in this area is slightly later than the international, there are also a large number of scholars who have invested in related research and achieved certain results. It should be said that it can be paid to the international research level." Zhong Fangrui said.

It is understood that the development of enzymes with non -natural catalytic activity are the key to expanding from natural product production to non -natural chemical production. In the future, more and more chemicals are expected to use enzyme catalytic to produce. In traditional impression, chimney chemical plants may be more and more replaced by gentle green biological processing methods. Green biological manufacturing has low energy consumption, non -toxic and harmless, and more friendly to the environment. It will become a new trend in the development of the chemical industry in the future. It is of great strategic significance for my country to take a new type of industrialization of industrialization and achieve wealth green growth and sustainable social economy.

(Changjiang Daily reporter Chen Xiaotong Correspondent Gao Xiang Wang Yidi)

【Edit: Zhao Ke】

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