Perspectives in Bioinorganic Catalysis

Dear Colleagues,

Metalloenzymes are complex catalysts at the interface between the biological and inorganic world. Due to their intricate architectures and sophisticated base-metal active sites, these key players of the cellular metabolism continue to outperform most synthetic catalysts in terms of specificity, turnover rate, and sustainability. Consequently, understanding metalloenzymes on a molecular level is vital from fundamental, medical, and application perspectives.

Despite considerable research efforts, the fundamental principles of bioinorganic catalysis are still under debate, and mechanistic details are unexplored, speculated, or discussed controversially in many cases. Likewise, mapping out strategies for metalloenzyme engineering and the design of functional synthetic analogues remains a difficult task.

This Special Issue aims to tackle these challenges by addressing both fundamental and target-specific questions in metalloenzyme research together with methodological developments and new avenues for biotechnological utilization and bioinspired catalyst design.

Submissions are welcome as research papers, reviews, and perspective articles. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

• Structural, electronic, and mechanistic aspects of metalloenzyme catalysis;
• Experimental and theoretical techniques for studying metalloenzymes;
• Fundamental principles of enzymatic catalysis, including non-classical aspects;
• Inter- and intramolecular communication between metal sites;
• Interactions between metals sites and the protein matrix;
• Multiscale dynamics and mesoscopic properties of proteins;
• Metalloenzyme engineering and biotechnological reaction cascades;
• In vivo, operando, and time-resolved spectroscopy of metalloenzymes;
• Synthetic approaches to bioinorganic catalysis, including bio-chemical hybrid strategies.

Dr. Marius Horch 
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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