Abstract:

The Buller Lab pursues interdisciplinary biocatalysis research, with the aim of identifying enzymes for practical organic synthesis while supporting synergistic advances in enzymology, synthetic biology, and protein engineering. This talk will share our efforts to make diverse β‐ and γ‐hydroxy amino acids, including those bearing tertiary alcohols that are formed through asymmetric aldol‐like addition into ketones. I will describe strategies to navigate sequence space more efficiently towards enzymes with broad substrate scope. Last, I will share our work to develop a new metallocofactor and harness its unique properties to perform new chemical transformations.