Dr. Yang Xinjie from the Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry Industrialization at Taizhou University, as the first author, has recently published a review article titled “Bridging chemistry and biology for light-driven new-to-nature enantioselective photoenzymatic catalysis” in the international authoritative journal Chemical Society Reviews ,a top Q1 journal under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IF: 39.0).
Enzymes are naturally occurring catalysts widely found in nature, capable of lowering reaction activation energy and regulating reaction processes. They play a pivotal role in industrial production and technological development. However, the catalytic functions of natural enzymes are limited to biological survival and reproduction, primarily tailored to evolutionarily conserved natural reactions, which cannot meet the demands of future green biosynthesis. Merging enzymes with light-driven photocatalysis combines the advantages of visible-light catalysis and enzymatic catalysis, offering promising pathways for efficient and sustainable green synthesis. This article systematically reviews the current advancements in asymmetric photoenzymatic catalysis and summarizes the four strategies exploring enantioselective photoenzymatic systems, including natural cofactor-based photoenzymatic catalysis, photocatalyst/enzyme synergistic catalysis, synthetic cofactor-based artificial photoenzymes, and cofactor-free photoenzymatic catalysis. The review comprehensively analyzes the advantages and challenges of each strategy in asymmetric synthesis, aiming to provide insights for frontier exploration and applied research in the field of directed biocatalytic transformations.
This study was jointly completed by Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) and Taizhou University. Professor Wang Zhiming (Taizhou University) provided guidance for this research. The co-corresponding authors include Professor Zhong Fangrui, Professor Wu Yuzhou, and Associate Researcher Wu Guojiao from HUST.
Link to the article: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2025/cs/d4cs00561a
