Biocatalysis Frontiers: From the Microbiome, to Emerging Tools in Structural Biology, to De Novo Pathway Construction

Biocatalysis as a field sits at the intersection of synthetic and evolutionary biology, biomolecular engineering, protein biochemistry, computational chemistry, genetics and mechanistic organic/organometallic chemistry. While guided by evolution, i.e. both the cornucopia of complex natural products and metabolites synthesized in Nature, and the exquisite selectivity and catalytic prowess of her catalysts, Biocatalysis seeks to explore those spaces in macromolecular catalysis, synthetic biology and pathway construction that may not yet have been sampled evolutionarily, or at least are not apparent in the biological space that we have been able to map to date. The 2018 GRC will feature cutting edge topics in the field, from new forays into the microbiome and into reprogramming synthetic biology, to new classes of natural and semi-synthetic enzymes, to new enzymatic cascades that are being assembled in the laboratory. This frontline biocatalysis research will be admixed with sessions dedicated to fundamental science that will highlight powerful tools now becoming available to the community. These will include in silico methods for engineering physical properties into proteins and emerging techniques in structural biology, such as cryo-electron microscopy (EM) and x-ray free electron laser (XFEL) crystallography, to gain new insight into structure/function, structure/property relationships.