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Enzymatic C1 Conversion Group
Introduction

Enzymatic C1 Conversion Group was established in May 2016 and currently has 14 members, including 8 staff members (including 1 foreign postdoctoral fellow), 5 of whom have a doctoral degree. The research background covers biochemistry, molecular biology, and microbiology. , Medicinal chemistry, organic synthesis and other disciplines; the research group has 3 doctoral students, 3 master students, 1 doctoral student and 4 master students .The research group integrates the concepts of chemical biology and synthetic biology, focuses on the key scientific issues of enzyme molecular transformation and rational design of the core components of biocatalysis, and carries out applied research on the development of basic and synthetic biotechnology such as the creation of new enzymes guided by the chemical mechanism of enzymes.

Director of Center/Group
Prof. CONG Zhiqi
Professor CONG Zhiqi received a PhD in Chemistry from Kumamoto University in Japan in 2009. During 2009-2013, he did his postdoctoral research at Institute for Molecular Science, and then he worked as a senior research scientist at Nagoya University before joining Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2016. He is currently a professor and the leader of Enzymatic C1 Conversion Group. He has made international-level achievements in the development of molecular mechanisms and artificial catalytic application systems of chloroperoxidase, myeloperoxidase, and cytochrome P450 monooxygenase. He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed papers on a number of prestigious scientific journals such as Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, ACS Catalysis, etc. The relevant results have been reported by scientific media such as ChemistryViews as highlights. Served as a reviewer for multiple international journals (Tetrahedron/Tetrahedron Lett, 2012, TOP10 Best Reviewer Award). In 2018, he was selected as the Qingdao City Innovation Leading Talent Project.
Research Interest
1. Enzymatic conversion and fixation of CO2
2. Molecular mechanism of heme enzymes 
3. Artificial metalloenzyme
4. Chemicals tuning cytochrome P450 enzymes
5. Oxyfunctionalization of hydrocarbons

Research Fields
Chemical biology and synthetic biology of metalloenzymes

Representative Research
Cytochrome P450 monooxygenase are a superfamily of heme enzyme with a cysteine as axial ligand, which catalyze the monooxygenation of various organic substrates under mild conditions. P450s are synthetically useful enzymes and promising versatile oxidative biocatalysts. However, the practical use of P450 is limited by its co-enzyme NAD(P)H and electron transport chain of proteins. Using H2O2 can simple the catalytic cycle of P450, however, most of P450s are inactive in the presence of H2O2. To overcome the problem, by mimicking the molecular structure and catalytic mechanism of natural peroxygenase and peroxidase, we have constructed a unique strategy for the development of a H2O2-dependent cytochrome P450BM3 system, which catalyzes the monooxygenation of non-native substrates with the assistance of dual-functional small molecules (DFSMs). This system afforded the best peroxygenase activity for epoxidation, sulfoxidation, and hydroxylation of inert C-H bond among those P450-H2O2 system previously reported. This work provides the first example of the activation of the normally H2O2-inert P450s through the introduction of an exogenous small molecule. This approach improves the potential use of P450s in organic synthesis as it avoids the expensive consumption of the reduced nicotinamide cofactor NAD(P)H and its dependent electron transport system. In combination with protein engineering, the P450 peroxygenase system has been developed for the monooxygenation of various of non-native substrates of P450 enzymes, such as regioselective benzylic hydroxylation and ortho-aromatic hydroxylation of toluene, direct hydroxylation of naphthalene and benzene, selective hydroxylation of small alkanes including n-hexane, n-pentane, n-butane, and propane.
 
Contact
congzq@qibebt.ac.cn
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