Design of protein wires for electron transmission as alternative for sustainable Energy

Natural biological redox metabolism uses a range of cofactors to carry reducing equivalents around the cell. Here we seek to create an orthogonal cofactor-oxidoreductase pair that operates in the cell but can redirect the reducing equivalents of cells to bespoke or custom circuits that are separated from natural redox metabolism owing to their utilisation of non-natural cofactors. This will allow us to selectively amplify the availability of reducing equivalents available to man-made functions for everything from bio-fuel production to sensing or biosynthesis of drugs.

Biological cells use a limited range of accessories for the transport of electrons and protons, in a process called reduction-oxidation, or redox. Proteins have evolved to allow these accessory cofactors to exchange electrons, allowing the cells to use all electrons derived from food towards growth, and preventing the trapping of electrons in pools of cofactors of a certain type. We want to be able to selectively redirect these electrons to enzymes that perform functions we are interested in, and to do this, this project will create an orthogonal cofactor-redox protein pair as a step towards this orthogonal redox metabolism. This will allow us to siphon off electrons as needed towards everything from making new types of fuels to sensing and making biologically derived drugs.