Accessibility statement

Professor Gideon J. Grogan

+44 (0)1904 328256
Email: gideon.grogan@york.ac.uk

Structural and Applied Enzymology

Gideon Grogan works on the identification, characterisation and application of new enzymes that have potential applications in biotechnology, including those for the production of chiral pharmaceutical precursors and the bioprocessing of renewable materials.  Recent work has focused on:

  • Oxygenases, including P450s, flavoprotein monooxygenases and peroxygenases
  • Reductases, including those that act on prochiral ketones (KREDs) and imines (IREDs) and enzymes that catalyse reductive amination reactions (RedAms)
  • Lyases that catalyse the asymmetric hydration of alkenes. 
  • Ligases for the formation of amide bonds.

In each case, a multidisciplinary approach is adopted, involving synthetic chemistry, microbiology, molecular biology, and X-ray crystallography, with a view to engineering enzymes using in vitro evolution techniques for altered or improved characteristics.

Recent Selected Publications

  • Multifunctional Biocatalyst for Conjugate Reduction and Reductive Amination T. Thorpe et al., Nature, 2022, 604, 86-91.
  • Chromoselective Photocatalysis Enables Stereocomplementary Biocatalytic Pathways L. Schmermund et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2021, 60, 6965-6969
  • Inverted Binding of Non-natural Substrates in Strictosidine Synthase Leads to a Switch of Stereochemical Outcome in Enzyme-Catalyzed Pictet–Spengler Reactions E. Eger et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 792-800
  • A family of native amine dehydrogenases for the asymmetric reductive amination of ketones O. Mayol et al., Nature Catal., 2019, 2, 324-333
  • The Broad Aryl Acid Specificity of the Amide Bond Synthetase McbA Suggests Potential for the Biocatalytic Synthesis of Amides M. Petchey et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2018, 57, 11584-11588
  • A Reductive Aminase from Aspergillus oryzae G. Aleku et al., Nature Chem., 2017, 9, 961-969
  • Structural and functional insights into asymmetric enzymatic dehydration of alkenols B. M. Nestl et al., Nature Chem. Biol. 2017, 13, 275-281