Frances H. Arnold, Ph.D.
Dickinson Professor of Chemical Engineering, Biochemistry and Bioengineering
Director, Ben and Donna Rosen Bioengineering Center
California Institute of Technology

Abstract:
Enzymes are admired for their ability to selectively catalyze myriad transformations. We use laboratory evolution experiments to understand better how evolution modifies existing enzymes and creates new ones. A powerful approach to engineering biological molecules, ‘directed evolution’ both circumvents and underscores our profound ignorance of how sequence encodes catalytic function. I will describe how we have used evolution (contaminated with a little chemical intuition) to generate new enzymes starting from one of nature’s most impressive, the cytochrome P450 monooxygenase.