In this article, Jones et al. took what they knew about natural product biosynthesis and developed a synthetic mimic to make complex molecules. In other words, instead of having to do one reaction, purify the product, and then have it be the starting material for another reaction, the authors are able to just add the starting materials and have the reaction cascade to it's final product. This very similar to the way products are made biologically but eliminates the need for enzyme intermediates.
I think this approach to a synthetic form of enzymatic cascade reactions is a great idea- especially for production on an industrial scale.
ReplyDeleteThis article reminds me of the one I just posted. It also dealt with the idea of biomimicry (although with proteins). Nature has already found efficient methods of using chemistry, so it only makes sense for us to design projects similarly.