Dr. Yang Xinjie from the Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry Industrialization (Institute of Advanced Research/School of Pharmaceutical Sciences) at our university, has recently published a research article titled “Enantioselective energy transfer catalysis compartmentalized by triplet photoenzymes” in the prestigious international chemistry journal Nature Catalysis (impact factor: 42.9) as the first author in collaboration with Huazhong University of Science and Technology. This study introduces a novel strategy, compartmentalized triplet photoenzyme-mediated energy transfer catalysis, which effectively addresses a key scientific challenge in enantioselective energy transfer (EnT) catalysis: the racemic background reaction arising from non-selective substrate excitation.

Asymmetric catalysis is a core technology for synthesizing chiral molecules. In conventional thermocatalysis, chiral catalysts selectively activate bound substrates by lowering the reaction’s activation barrier, thus achieving enantioselective induction. However, in photoinduced asymmetric energy transfer catalysis, a fundamental challenge arises: under non-selective light irradiation, unbound substrates can also be excited, leading to non-chiral background reactions that reduce the enantiomeric selectivity of the products.

Inspired by the compartmentalization mechanisms in nature, which spatially segregate mutually incompatible biochemical reactions, the research team developed a biocatalytic compartmentalization strategy. By integrating a genetically encoded artificial triplet photoenzyme with custom-designed external triplet quenchers, the researchers successfully eliminated racemic background reactions caused by direct substrate excitation in asymmetric photocatalysis.

This study not only expands the repertoire of artificial photoenzymes but also introduces a distinctive biocatalytic approach for precisely controlling reaction processes with spatial resolution. With continuous advances in synthetic biology and protein engineering, this strategy—combining the advantages of biological compartmentalization with rational chemical design—holds great promise for the green synthesis of complex chiral molecules, biocompatible photochemistry, and precision synthetic biology within living cells.

The study was a collaborative effort involving Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Taizhou University, and Northwest University (NWU). Professors Zhong Fangrui and Wu Yuzhou from HUST and Professor Chen Xi from NWU are the corresponding authors of the paper.

Link to the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41929-025-01433-3