Synthetic chemists continually seek new catalysts to speed up reactions. As part of this search, researchers have modified natural enzymes through directed evolution to carry out nonbiological reactions. Especially promising in this regard are enzymes that rely on cofactors for their activity; an enzyme— cofactor ensemble often has greater catalytic versatility than the enzyme or cofactor alone. In this Perspective, Christopher Prier and Frances Arnold describe functional similarities between certain small-molecule catalysts, which are designed to carry out specific synthetic reactions, and natural cofactor-dependent enzymes (DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5b09348). They explore the potential of exploiting this understanding-in an approach they call chemo-mimetic biology-to create enzymes that catalyze reactions not known in nature.
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