Protein coat prepares catalyst for cascades

By protecting a transition metal catalyst with a protein coat, scientists have managed to couple up biocatalysts and chemical catalysts to perform a cascade reaction.

When students and post-docs moved from Nick Turner’s lab at the University of Manchester, UK, to Tom Ward’s at the University of Basel, Switzerland, it prompted an intriguing collaboration between a group with experience with naturally occurring enzymes and Ward’s group, which creates artificial metalloenzymes by combining transition metal catalysts with proteins. The result was a way of combining traditional enzyme biocatalysts  with chemical catalysts to perform reaction cascades. More...

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2012/11/protein-coat-catalyst-cascades