Protein engineering from "scratch" is maturing

Abstract

Precisely tuning the active site by protein engineering has led to the development of a highly efficient Kemp eliminase (see structure with substrate in the binding pocket). The starting protein scaffold with only low activity originated from computational design, as no natural enzyme with this activity was known. This is a breakthrough in protein design, as novel catalytic activities are now in reach that match those of natural enzymes.

Keywords: Kemp eliminase; computational chemistry; directed evolution; enzyme catalysis; protein engineering.