Enzymes that could miraculously cure wounded soldiers in war zones and even reverse some incurable diseases like advanced cancer have been created by researchers at the UCLA and University of Washington. This research project which has been funded by DARPA, the research wing of the U.S army and led by professor Kendall Houk and biochemist David Baker has finally tasted success after nearly three years of painstaking research. The researchers have used computational techniques to arrange the elements in proteins to make the proteins react in whatever ways the researchers want it to thus making it a super enzyme which has an enormous range of applications.
The Scientists have created a way to combine a reaction called Kemp elimination with one more reaction called Retro Aldol reaction to give rise to these artificial designer enzymes. Combining physics, chemistry and mathematics with complex computational techniques, the researchers of Dr Baker’s group finally managed to determine the 3 dimensional arrangement of the chemical groups to enable them make the enzyme in the lab. Using software from Gaussian Inc, Professor Houk’s group of reseachers used supercomputers, advanced algorithms and quantum mechanics to locate the active site where the enzymes need to be place to achieve the particular reaction. These ultra potent designer enzymes have a vast range of uses from disabling the ultra dangerous biological weapons in war zones to emergency rooms in hospitals.
Source: ScienceDaily