Descripción del proyecto
El agua como donante de electrones para favorecer las transformaciones catalizadas por oxidorreductasas
Las reacciones redox son un tipo de conversión fundamental en la síntesis orgánica. Consisten en una transferencia de electrones entre un donante (que se reduce) y un aceptor (que se oxida). Las oxidorreductasas son enzimas que catalizan esta transferencia. Generalmente, su actividad suele potenciarse mediante cosustratos estequiométricos como la glucosa y los alcoholes, de forma que se sacrifican valiosos alimentos como donantes de electrones. En lugar de esto, en el proyecto BioAqua, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, se utilizará agua en un enfoque completamente novedoso de la biocatálisis: se activará el agua con luz visible y se utilizarán catalizadores avanzados para facilitar la oxidación del agua. Los electrones liberados se utilizarán para promover transformaciones catalizadas por oxidorreductasas en un sistema de reacción más limpio y eficaz.
Objetivo
The research proposed in BioAqua aims at breaking new ground in the area of catalysis by enabling water-driven biocatalytic redox reactions.
Oxidoreductases are a class of enzymes with a very high potential for preparative organic synthesis, which is why they are increasingly used also on industrial scale. The current state-of-the-art, however, utilises valuable high-energy cosubstrates (such as glucose and alcohols) to promote oxidoreductases. Thereby valuable (and edible) building blocks are wasted as sacrificial electron donors which will have significant ethical (food for chemistry), economic and environmental consequences once redox biocatalysis is applied at scale.
I envision utilizing water as sacrificial electron donor. Hence, a simple and abundant cosubstrate will be used instead of the valuable cosubstrates mentioned above. This will be a completely new approach in (bio)catalysis.
However, activating water for this purpose water is extremely difficult due to its kinetic and thermodynamic inertness. To solve this problem, I propose using visible light as external energy source and advanced chemical catalysts to facilitate water oxidation. The electrons liberated in this process will be made available (for the first time) to promote oxidoreductases-catalysed transformations.
BioAqua represents an entirely new paradigm in catalysis as I will bridge the gap between photocatalysis and biocatalysis enabling cleaner and more efficient reaction schemes.
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitución de acogida
2628 CN Delft
Países Bajos