Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Outputs (11)

Direct analysis of biotransformations with mass spectrometry-DiBT-MS. (2025)
Journal Article
Knox, R., Smith, R., Kempa, E. E., Spiess, R., Schnepel, C., Turner, N. J., Flitsch, S. L., & Barran, P. E. (online). Direct analysis of biotransformations with mass spectrometry-DiBT-MS. Nature Protocols, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-025-01161-9

The development and analysis of engineered enzymes is greatly assisted by the use of high-throughput screening to quickly determine the efficacy of biotransformations under various conditions. Ambient ionization, particularly desorption electrospray... Read More about Direct analysis of biotransformations with mass spectrometry-DiBT-MS..

Balance between photoreduction efficiency, cofactor affinity, and allosteric coupling of halogenase flavoenzymes (2024)
Journal Article
Diepold, N., Reese, F., Prior, T., Schnepel, C., Sewald, N., & Kottke, T. (2025). Balance between photoreduction efficiency, cofactor affinity, and allosteric coupling of halogenase flavoenzymes. Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences, 24, 37-51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43630-024-00670-y

Flavin-dependent halogenases (FDHs) are promising candidates for the sustainable production of halogenated organic molecules by biocatalysis. FDHs require only oxygen, halide and a fully reduced flavin adenine dinucleotide (FADH ) cofactor to generat... Read More about Balance between photoreduction efficiency, cofactor affinity, and allosteric coupling of halogenase flavoenzymes.

An engineered aldolase enables the biocatalytic synthesis of 2′-functionalized nucleoside analogues (2024)
Journal Article
Willmott, M., Finnigan, W., Birmingham, W. R., Derrington, S. R., Heath, R. S., Schnepel, C., Hayes, M. A., Smith, P. D., Falcioni, F., & Turner, N. J. (2025). An engineered aldolase enables the biocatalytic synthesis of 2′-functionalized nucleoside analogues. Nature Synthesis, 4, 156-166. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-024-00671-w

Nucleosides functionalized at the 2′-position play a crucial role in therapeutics, serving as both small-molecule drugs and modifications in therapeutic oligonucleotides. However, the synthesis of these molecules often presents substantial synthetic... Read More about An engineered aldolase enables the biocatalytic synthesis of 2′-functionalized nucleoside analogues.

The Impact of Metagenomics on Biocatalysis (2024)
Journal Article
Hogg, B. N., Schnepel, C., Finnigan, J. D., Charnock, S. J., Hayes, M. A., & Turner, N. J. (2024). The Impact of Metagenomics on Biocatalysis. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 63(21), Article e202402316. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202402316

In the ever-growing demand for sustainable ways to produce high-value small molecules, biocatalysis has come to the forefront of greener routes to these chemicals. As such, the need to constantly find and optimise suitable biocatalysts for specific t... Read More about The Impact of Metagenomics on Biocatalysis.

Biocatalysis in Drug Design: Engineered Reductive Aminases (RedAms) Are Used to Access Chiral Building Blocks with Multiple Stereocenters (2023)
Journal Article
Casamajo, A. R., Yu, Y., Schnepel, C., Morrill, C., Barker, R., Levy, C. W., Finnigan, J., Spelling, V., Westerlund, K., Petchey, M., Sheppard, R. J., Lewis, R. J., Falcioni, F., Hayes, M. A., & Turner, N. J. (2023). Biocatalysis in Drug Design: Engineered Reductive Aminases (RedAms) Are Used to Access Chiral Building Blocks with Multiple Stereocenters. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 145(40), 22041-22046. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.3c07010

Novel building blocks are in constant demand during the search for innovative bioactive small molecule therapeutics by enabling the construction of structure–activity–property–toxicology relationships. Complex chiral molecules containing multiple ste... Read More about Biocatalysis in Drug Design: Engineered Reductive Aminases (RedAms) Are Used to Access Chiral Building Blocks with Multiple Stereocenters.

Structure-Based Design of Small Imine Reductase Panels for Target Substrates (2023)
Journal Article
Yu, Y., Rué Casamajo, A., Finnigan, W., Schnepel, C., Barker, R., Morrill, C., Heath, R. S., De Maria, L., Turner, N. J., & Scrutton, N. S. (2023). Structure-Based Design of Small Imine Reductase Panels for Target Substrates. ACS Catalysis, 13(18), 12310-12321. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.3c02278

Biocatalysis is important in the discovery, development, and manufacture of pharmaceuticals. However, the identification of enzymes for target transformations of interest requires major screening efforts. Here, we report a structure-based computation... Read More about Structure-Based Design of Small Imine Reductase Panels for Target Substrates.

Enzymatic Late‐Stage Halogenation of Peptides (2022)
Journal Article
Schnepel, C., Moritzer, A., Gäfe, S., Montua, N., Minges, H., Nieß, A., Niemann, H. H., & Sewald, N. (2023). Enzymatic Late‐Stage Halogenation of Peptides. ChemBioChem, 24(1), Article e202200569. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202200569

The late-stage site-selective derivatisation of peptides has many potential applications in structure-activity relationship studies and postsynthetic modification or conjugation of bioactive compounds. The development of orthogonal methods for C−H fu... Read More about Enzymatic Late‐Stage Halogenation of Peptides.

One‐Step Biocatalytic Synthesis of Sustainable Surfactants by Selective Amide Bond Formation (2022)
Journal Article
Lubberink, M., Finnigan, W., Schnepel, C., Baldwin, C. R., Turner, N. J., & Flitsch, S. L. (2022). One‐Step Biocatalytic Synthesis of Sustainable Surfactants by Selective Amide Bond Formation. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 61(30), Article e202205054. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202205054

N-alkanoyl-N-methylglucamides (MEGAs) are non-toxic surfactants widely used as commercial ingredients, but more sustainable syntheses towards these compounds are highly desirable. Here, we present a biocatalytic route towards MEGAs and analogues usin... Read More about One‐Step Biocatalytic Synthesis of Sustainable Surfactants by Selective Amide Bond Formation.

Enzymatic Late‐Stage Modifications: Better Late Than Never (2021)
Journal Article
Romero, E., Jones, B. S., Hogg, B. N., Rué Casamajo, A., Hayes, M. A., Flitsch, S. L., Turner, N. J., & Schnepel, C. (2021). Enzymatic Late‐Stage Modifications: Better Late Than Never. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 60(31), 16824-16855. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202014931

Enzyme catalysis is gaining increasing importance in synthetic chemistry. Nowadays, the growing number of biocatalysts accessible by means of bioinformatics and enzyme engineering opens up an immense variety of selective reactions. Biocatalysis espec... Read More about Enzymatic Late‐Stage Modifications: Better Late Than Never.