Associate professor Alexander Zelikin, iNANO and Department of Chemistry, Aarhus University

Artificial Enzymes

Enzyme engineering is exciting from the standpoint of fundamental science as well as that of applied engineering. Fundamentally, it is intriguing that Nature took millions of years to develop enzymes whereas current science can do this quite fast and make protein-based catalysts within few years. Current understanding of protein structure and function also allows optimizing natural catalysts and engineering enzymes with enhanced stability and higher catalytic output. Surprisingly, enzyme-like catalysis was also observed and successfully engineered using a variety of non-protein materials, from single polymer chains to hydrogels and even using inorganic materials such as metallic nanoparticles. Utility of synthetic enzymes covers broadest range of industrial and biomedical applications, in the latter case specifically towards cell mimicry. This lecture aims to present successes in enzyme engineering and discuss avenues for further development of synthetic mimics of natural enzymes. 

Host: Associate Professor Brigitte Städler, iNANO and Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University