NATURE: Enzymes team up with light-activated catalysts

Description

The development of catalytic reactions is a dominant theme in chemistry, especially in industry, where major efforts are under way to develop large-scale chemical processes that are sustainable and avoid producing unnecessary waste¹. Chemical reactions can be accelerated using many types of catalyst, including metals (or their salts or complexes), small organic molecules, enzymes and light-activated catalysts. Catalysts of all types have advanced to the extent that two or more catalysts can be combined to promote cascade reactions — interconnected transformations, carried out in a single operation, to yield products with selectivities that would be difficult to achieve using the catalysts independently in sequential steps. In a paper in Nature, Litman et al.² report that the combination of an enzyme with a light-activated catalyst starts a cascade reaction that produces compounds that are versatile intermediates for organic synthesis.