Teaching enzymes new reactions through genetic code expansion and directed evolution

Can scientists design and engineer artificial enzymes to make the chemicals that society needs, with the selectivities and efficiencies of natural enzymes? That’s the ultimate question motivating research in Anthony Green’s lab at the University of Manchester, UK.

‘We specialise in designing enzymes that have catalytic functions beyond those found in nature,’ explains Green. His team’s research strategy centres on tailoring enzymes’ structures by using an expanded genetic code. Nature might be restricted to 20 amino acids but that doesn’t mean science should be too.