Newest advances in enzymatic carbene- and nitrene-transfer catalysis

Abstract

By combining advances in chemocatalysis with directed evolution we can further expand Nature's vast catalyst repertoire. I will describe recently developed carbene- and nitrene-transfer reactions, first envisioned and invented by human chemists, that are now genetically encoded and catalyzed by heme proteins and can be tuned by directed evolution. I argue that we should look at the biol. world not just for the chem. that it already does so well, but for chem. it could do in the future, with some human creativity and a little help from evolution.

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