BioCat Collective

Educating and Building a Broader Biocatalysis Community

Category: Biocatalysis

  • Pharmacological effects, biosynthesis, and production of coumarin compounds: a review

    Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi. 2026 Aug;51(16):4623-4633. doi: 10.19540/j.cnki.cjcmm.20260330.401. ABSTRACT Coumarins mainly include simple coumarins, furanocoumarins, and pyranocoumarins. These compounds exhibit diverse biological activities, including anticoagulant, antibacterial, antitumor, and antioxidant effects, and thus possess high value for drug development. At present, coumarins are mainly obtained through traditional plant extraction methods. In recent years, synthetic biology…

  • Molecular Design Principles for Photosystem I-Based Biohybrid Solar Fuel Catalysts

    ACS Nano. 2026 Sep 1;20(34):23893-23906. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.6c07948. ABSTRACT Direct solar-to-chemical conversion offers a compelling route to clean, dispatchable energy. Photosystem I (PSI), an evolutionarily optimized light-driven oxidoreductase, can be repurposed for solar-fuel production by coupling its photochemistry to catalytic interfaces. However, the molecular determinants that govern productive electron transfer to abiotic catalysts remain poorly understood.…

  • Living Whole-Cell Biocatalysis for Sustainable and Durable Melanin-Based Textile Coloration

    ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2026 Sep 1. doi: 10.1021/acsami.6c11728. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Pigments are widely utilized in industries; however, conventional synthetic pigment production relies on petroleum-based feedstocks, consumes significant energy, and involves toxic chemicals. Although natural pigments provide a sustainable alternative, these systems are constrained by seasonal variability, geographical dependence, and limited scalability.…

  • Reshaping the Activity-Stability Landscape of a 1,2-Rhamnosyltransferase via Distal Mutational Engineering

    J Agric Food Chem. 2026 Sep 2;74(34):27168-27178. doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.6c07461. ABSTRACT Rhamnosyltransferases are remarkable biocatalysts for the synthesis of rhamnosylated natural products with valuable physicochemical properties and bioactivities. However, their application is hindered by poor stability and low catalytic efficiency. Here, we achieved simultaneous enhancement of catalytic efficiency and stability of a 1,2-rhamnosyltransferase by a distal…

  • Ca-BPDC Immobilization Redistributes Regional Proteolytic Preference of Serine Proteases

    ACS Appl Bio Mater. 2026 Sep 2. doi: 10.1021/acsabm.6c00770. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Proteases cleave peptide bonds and generate shorter polypeptide products, finding broad applications. For applications in peptide sequencing, protein mapping, and production of bioactive polypeptides, control over where proteolysis initiates and how it proceeds is critical. Natural proteolytic selectivity primarily originates from…

  • Kinetic Intensification of Interfacial Biodesulfurization via Self-Assembled Whole-Cell Pickering Emulsions

    Langmuir. 2026 Sep 1;42(34):25110-25120. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.6c03108. ABSTRACT Biodesulfurization offers an energy-efficient alternative to conventional hydrodesulfurization, but its industrial efficiency is severely bottlenecked by the low bioaccessibility of hydrophobic substrates across the oil-water interface. Here, we addressed this mass-transfer challenge using exogenous-surfactant-free water-in-oil Pickering emulsions stabilized solely by Gordonia sp. WQ-01A cells. Exploiting the strain’s native…

  • Structures of LPOR-Chlide complexes reveal the structural basis of membrane remodeling and photocatalysis

    Nat Commun. 2026 Aug 5;17(1):9427. doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-76316-7. ABSTRACT Light-dependent protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase (LPOR) is a light-driven enzyme in flowering plants. It is involved in chlorophyll biosynthesis while also reorganizing membrane lipids into the cubic membrane network that supports chloroplast development. However, the structural basis of these two activities and their relationship have remained unclear. Here, cryo-electron…

  • Immobilized horseradish peroxidase hybrid biocatalysts for degradation of pharmaceuticals and other emerging micropollutants

    PLoS One. 2026 Sep 2;21(9):e0355285. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0355285. eCollection 2026. ABSTRACT With the increasing detection of emerging pollutants (EPs), such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and pesticides, in water bodies, there is a growing research priority to develop efficient methods for their degradation. In the present study, the degradation of 21 EPs from different classes was…

  • An Orthogonal Framework for Higher-Order Structural and In Vitro Functional Comparability of Chemically Synthesized Liraglutide Relative to an rDNA-Origin Reference Product

    Pharm Res. 2026 Sep 3. doi: 10.1007/s11095-026-04178-1. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT PURPOSE: Synthetic peptide test products referencing recombinant-origin products present unique regulatory challenges in demonstrating higher-order structural (HOS) comparability beyond primary sequence sameness. Liraglutide, a lipidated glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist with defined self-association behavior, represents an important model for such assessments. METHODS: A…

  • Advances in chemoenzymatic synthesis of glycosaminoglycans and proteoglycans

    Curr Opin Chem Biol. 2026 Sep 2;94:102753. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2026.102753. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Proteoglycans (PGs) are intricate macromolecules decorated with linear polysulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) that play critical roles in orchestrating a wide range of physiological and pathological events. Advances in the utilization of recombinant enzymes and biosynthetic pathways have expedited the production of defined…