Innovation by Evolution: Expanding the Enzyme Universe

Not satisfied with nature’s vast enzyme repertoire, we want to create new ones and expand the space of genetically encoded enzyme functions. I will describe how we use the most powerful biological design process, evolution, to optimize existing enzymes and invent new ones. In this first lecture, I will describe different evolutionary strategies that allow us to circumvent our profound ignorance of how sequence encodes function. Mimicking nature’s evolutionary tricks and using a little chemical intuition, we can generate whole new enzyme families that catalyze important reactions, including ones not known in nature, thereby adding new capabilities to the chemistry of the biological world and increasing the scope of molecules and materials we can build.














Frances Arnold (California Institute of Technology)