Novel artificial metalloenzymes by in vivo incorporation of metal-binding unnatural amino acids

Chem Sci. 2015 Jan 1;6(1):770-776. doi: 10.1039/c4sc01525h. Epub 2014 Oct 9.

Abstract

Artificial metalloenzymes have emerged as an attractive new approach to enantioselective catalysis. Herein, we introduce a novel strategy for preparation of artificial metalloenzymes utilizing amber stop codon suppression methodology for the in vivo incorporation of metal-binding unnatural amino acids. The resulting artificial metalloenzymes were applied in catalytic asymmetric Friedel-Crafts alkylation reactions and up to 83% ee for the product was achieved.