Title: Adventures with Enzymes: tackling classical problems in enzymology and organic synthesis
Abstract: The Buller Lab pursues interdisciplinary biocatalysis research, with the aim of developing enzymes with practical synthetic utility while supporting synergistic advances in enzymology, synthetic biology, and protein engineering. This talk will share our efforts to develop C-C bond forming enzymes that synthesize diverse non-canonical amino acids, including those bearing chiral tertiary. I will describe strategies that use information about enzyme specificity to navigate sequence space more efficiently. Last, I will share our work to develop a new cobalt-containing metallocofactor and harness its unique properties to perform new chemical transformations.