Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) serves as a coenzyme that helps meals convert into vitality within the physique. Home researchers have succeeded in creating a brand new synthetic enzyme for the primary time on the earth by binding steel to this riboflavin, including the steel’s response management functionality to riboflavin’s electron switch perform. This expertise operates extra exactly and stably than pure enzymes and is predicted to be utilized in varied fields together with vitality manufacturing, environmental purification, and new drug improvement.
KAIST introduced on Nov. 11 that Prof. Baek Yoon-jeong’s analysis workforce from the Division of Chemistry succeeded in synthesizing a brand new molecular system that permits riboflavin to bind with steel ions via joint analysis carried out with Dr. Kwon Seong-yeon from the Institute for Fundamental Science (IBS).
Riboflavin is thought to have structural limitations that make it troublesome for metals to selectively bind because of its complicated ring construction with intricately intertwined nitrogen and oxygen. For that reason, scientists have lengthy been unable to implement riboflavin sure with metals. To beat these limitations, the home analysis workforce utilized a metallochemical method that designed binding websites for metals inside flavin on the molecular degree and exactly positioned ligand constructions that seize metals. By way of this, they succeeded in secure synthesis of flavin-metal conjugates by exactly controlling digital and spatial interactions across the steel.
This achievement represents the primary case of mixing riboflavin’s inherent traits with steel reactivity inside a single system, opening prospects for creating metal-based synthetic enzymes that finely management chemical reactions. Prof. Baek stated, “We have now expanded biomolecules as new elements of steel chemistry past the constraints of flavins present in nature,” including, “This analysis presents a brand new route for designing next-generation catalysts and vitality conversion supplies based mostly on biomolecules.”
