Biocatalysis: Exploring and Designing Biocatalysts for Molecular Synthesis, and DNA/Protein Bio-Macromolecule Modifications
A special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344). This special issue belongs to the section "Biocatalysis".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 January 2023) | Viewed by 3432
Special Issue Editors
Interests: biocatalysis; expanding genetic codes; protein post-translational modifications; protein chemistry; novel enzyme design for protein modifications
Interests: enzymology; metabolic engineering of E. coli and biocatalyst development for chemical production
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Biocatalysis carried out by protein catalyst (i.e., enzyme) has proven its great synthetic advantages of superb selectivity and mild processing conditions in the production of valuable chemicals and secondary metabolites as well as biologically significant macromolecules such as proteins with specific post-translational modifications and nucleic acids with specific epigenetic markers. To expand the biocatalytic scope of an arbitrary enzyme for desirable applications, enzymes often require engineering to achieve the application goals, where the engineering process could be conducted by rational design, directed evolution, or a combination of both. In addition, recent developments in biocatalysis have moved forward to implement protein scaffold design in order to explore new chemistry of catalysis on previously unachievable substrate targets. Engineered enzymes could be applied in in vitro molecular synthesis and in vivo production via the implementation of metabolic engineering strategy. Furthermore, because enzymatic functional studies exploring the regulatory mechanisms they exert via protein post-transcriptional and post-translational modifications (PTMs) have advanced enormously, the biocatalytic modification of target proteins has become possible. Therefore, combining new enzyme chemistry in PTM enzyme and protein scaffolds, and tool development for site-specific drug loading onto therapeutic antibodies is worth exploring. Similarly, as nucleic acids have recently emerged as attractive reagents for potential therapeutic applications, biocatalytic process studies allowing the production of DNA or RNA uniformly with defined compositions and base modifications for better stability and efficacy are extremely valuable. In this Special Issue, we are seeking to explore the realm of studies at the intersection between novel enzyme design for new biocatalytic functions to process medically relevant small-molecule natural products, as well as proteins and nucleic acid macromolecules. We welcome reviews and original research articles that are related to new chemical reactions catalyzed by evolved enzymes that can catalyze chemical transformation or modification on small molecules, proteins, or nucleic acids.
Dr. Yane-Shih Wang
Dr. Rung-Yi Lai
Dr. Yan-Jiun Lee
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Catalysts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- biocatalyst
- enzyme
- protein engineering
- protein design
- directed evolution
- novel chemistry
- protein modification
- nucleic acid modification