Celebrating the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018. Directed evolution: from Charles R. Darwin to Frances H. Arnold Pere Clapés Authors Pere Clapés Institut de Química Avançada de Catalunya (IQAC-CSIC) Keywords: Biocatalysis, directed evolution, Frances H. Arnold, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018. Abstract One half of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Frances H. Arnold for her pioneering investigations of the directed evolution of enzymes, which are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. The directed evolution of enzymes is based on the Darwinian concept of natural selection, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved. Enzymes are the products of evolution, not of design, and by natural selection the best adapted organisms contain the most updated and optimized enzyme repertoires to effectively catalyze the metabolic reactions essential for their survival. The concept of natural selection taken to the laboratory on molecular level for a specific enzyme – with an evolutionary pressure defined by the researcher – in order to adapt its catalytic properties to given synthetic needs, is what is called directed evolution of enzymes. In this paper, the concept and methodologies of directed evolution are reviewed, as well as the main research work with applications in synthetic organic chemistry of the Nobel laureate Frances H. Arnold.Keywords: Biocatalysis, directed evolution, Frances H. Arnold, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018. Downloads Download data is not yet available. Author Biography Pere Clapés, Institut de Química Avançada de Catalunya (IQAC-CSIC) Pere Clapés és llicenciat en química per la Universitat de Barcelona i doctor en química per la mateixa universitat (1988). Després d’una etapa postdoctoral al Center for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering a la Universitat de Lund (Suècia), el 1993 comença la carrera científica independent a l’Institut de Química Avançada de Catalunya (IQAC-CSIC), on actualment és professor d’investigació. Ha publicat més de cent cinquanta articles d’investigació, incloent-hi patents en el camp de la biocatàlisi. La seva línia de recerca s’emmarca dins la investigació de carbolligases per a la formació asimètrica d’enllaços carboni–carboni, la descoberta de biocatalitzadors nous i llur optimització mitjançant tècniques d’enginyeria de proteïnes. Downloads PDF (Català) Issue No. 18 (2019) Section Articles License The intellectual property of articles belongs to the respective authors. On submitting articles for publication to the journal Revista de la Societat Catalana de Química, authors accept the following terms:Authors assign to Catalan Society of Chemistry (a subsidiary of Institut d’Estudis Catalans) the rights of reproduction, communication to the public and distribution of the articles submitted for publication to Revista de la Societat Catalana de Química.Authors answer to Catalan Society of Chemistry for the authorship and originality of submitted articles.Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for the reproduction of all graphic material included in articles.Catalan Society of Chemistry declines all liability for the possible infringement of intellectual property rights by authors.The contents published in the journal, unless otherwise stated in the text or in the graphic material, are subject to a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (by-nc-nd) 3.0 Spain licence, the complete text of which may be found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/deed.en. Consequently, the general public is authorised to reproduce, distribute and communicate the work, provided that its authorship and the body publishing it are acknowledged, and that no commercial use and no derivative works are made of it.The journal is not responsible for the ideas and opinions expressed by the authors of the published articles.
