Establishing the Fatty Acid Photodecarboxylase CvFAP as a Platform for Photobiocatalytic Radical Transformations The fatty acid photodecarboxylase from Chlorella variabilis (CvFAP) has emerged as a versatile photoenzyme for radical generation from readily available carboxylic acids. Here, we demonstrate that CvF...

Pleased to share how we repurposed CvFAP as a platform for #radical #photobiocatalysis, supported by #enzymeengineering and computational mechanistic insights. Thanks to everyone involved: @elkcrew.bsky.social @marcgarciaborras.bsky.social pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Looking for a motivated PhD student with a background in #molbio & #biocatalysis. In collaboration with @marcgarciaborras.bsky.social, the project will leverage #photobiocatalysis.
Interested or know any potential candidates? Then check the announcement: biocatalysis.uni-graz.at/pdf/PhD%20ph...

Recent advances in repurposing natural enzymes for new-to-nature asymmetric photobiotransformations Photobiocatalysis, which integrates the strengths of visible-light-catalysis and enzymatic catalysis, has established itself as a pivotal tool for asymmetric synthesis. Over the past decade, several n...

📢 #Review article featured in our Emerging Investigator Series!

👉Recent advances in repurposing natural #enzymes for new-to-nature asymmetric #photobiotransformations
#Photobiocatalysis #OCF_review

doi.org/10.1039/D5QO...

🥳 Big congrats to Dr. Christoph Winkler @ckwinkler.bsky.social from our crew, who delivered his Habilitationskolloquium on “Contributions to Photobiocatalysis – From Reactor Technology to Synthetic Methods”!

We’re so proud to celebrate this milestone with him! 🌟

#photobiocatalysis

Protein-Driven Electron-Transfer Process in a Fatty Acid Photodecarboxylase Naturally occurring photoenzymes are rare in nature, but among them, fatty acid photodecarboxylases derived from Chlorella variabilis (CvFAPs) have emerged as promising photobiocatalysts capable of performing the redox-neutral, light-induced decarboxylation of free fatty acids (FAs) into C1-shortened n-alka(e)nes. Using a hybrid QM/MM approach combined with a polarizable embedding scheme, we identify the structural changes of the active site and determine the energetic landscape of the forward electron transfer (fET) from the FA substrate to the excited flavin adenine dinucleotide. We obtain a charge-transfer diradical structure where a water molecule rearranges spontaneously to form a H-bond interaction with the excited flavin, while the FA’s carboxylate group twists and migrates away from it. Together, these structural modifications provide the driving force necessary for the fET to proceed in a downhill direction. Moreover, by examining the R451K mutant where the FA substrate is farther from the flavin core, we show that the marked reduction of the electronic coupling is counterbalanced by an increased driving force, resulting in a fET lifetime similar to the WT, thereby suggesting a resilience of the process to this mutation. Finally, through QM/MM molecular dynamic simulations, we reveal that, following fET, the decarboxylation of the FA radical occurs within tens of picoseconds, overcoming an energy barrier of ∼0.1 eV. Overall, by providing an atomistic characterization of the photoactivation of CvFAP, this work can be used for future protein engineering.

Our computational study on a fatty acid photodecarboxylase is out in JACS Au #openaccess.

Check out what drives the electron transfer and decarboxylation in this exciting #photoenzyme!

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

#QMMM #compchem #photobiocatalysis

Congrats to Giacomo and all authors!

Congratulations to @_StefanSimic for defending his PhD in the @elk_crew yesterday, it was a tremendous performance! This calls for a traditional #Lego #PhD present: A mini-Stefan performing #flow #photobiocatalysis, everything inc. the light-switch is Lego (except the syringe)

#Enzymes are #exciting, especially when applied in #photobiocatalysis! Our perspective in @ChemPhotoChem summarizes our insights from the @PhotoBioCat project.
chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cptc.2022003...

Want to transfer #photobiocatalysis to #flow? Here we share what we learned using the fatty acid photodecarboxylase as test case. Spoiler: it's challenging, but possible & rewarding. Contrats @_StefanSimic @Huckgroup @migle_jakstaite @ck_winkler @WKroutil ...

If you want to dive into #photobiocatalysis & still need a good photoreactor, this one is for you: Check out the characterization of our #opensource #photoreactor & some nice light-dependent #biocatalysis. @elk_crew @WKroutil @ChemPhotoChem ...

🔨🔧This week we stepped out of our chemical comfort zone doing soldering & electronics. We had a lot of fun constructing three more of our custom #photoreactors for #photobiocatalysis. All are up&running and ready to produce exciting results, combining #light and #biocatalysis.

💡 Hello #YCS20! Check out the open source #photoreactor that we developed in the @elk_crew for “Fast Reaction Engineering of Photobiocatalytic Reactions through Parallelization” #biocatalysis #photocatalysis #photobiocatalysis

Hi @LatinXChem, I’m here to learn about twitter poster-sessions and I'm excited to discover the chemistry from Latin America. Read about our custom #photoreactor to run #photobiocatalysis in parallel. #LatinXChem #LatinXChemCat #Cat003 #elkcrew #biocatalysis #photocatalysis

it wa great to be back at the lab today after such a long time and wor on our #photoreactor for #photobiocatalysis.