In Nature, a variety of organism display synthetic prowess. For example, plants, fungi and microbes, have historically provided compounds with potent pharmaceutical properties. Although it can be challenging to build complex natural products in a lab using existing chemistry methods, Nature has perfected pathways that allow for the transformation of readily available starting materials into complex metabolites. The work described leverages the power of Nature’s tools for building complex molecules to synthesize novel molecules with therapeutic potential. Specifically, this talk will focus on the modification of amino acids through reactions mediated by pyridoxal phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzymes. Using co-factor centric logic, a number of reactions have been developed to transform simple amino acid starting materials into increasingly complex products.

Biocatalysis for building complexity from amino acid feedstocks

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.