Mimicking an enzyme in look and deed
Service, R.F.
Science 279(5350): 479-480
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075 PMID: 9454346 Document Number: 494279
A new model catalyst, reported in this issue, represents one of the first good instances of both the structural and reactivity aspects of enzymes, according to Tom Sorrell, an organic chemist and enzyme modelmaker at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Produced by a five-member team at Stanford University led by inorganic chemist Dan Stack and structural expert Keith Hodgson, the model imitates the active site of an enzyme called galactose oxidase. The model, like the enzyme, functions at normal temperatures and pressures to turn one set of organic compounds--alcohols--into other compounds known as aldehydes, which act as intermediates for producing still more vital compounds.