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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/S97491/01
Title: Extending the substrate specificity of enzymatic flourination. An entriely novel biocatalysis
Principal Investigator: O'Hagan, Professor D
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Chemistry
Organisation: University of St Andrews
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 October 2004 Ends: 30 September 2007 Value (£): 181,982
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Biological & Medicinal Chem. Bioprocess Engineering
Chemical Synthetic Methodology
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Food and Drink Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
The study will explore the substrate specificity of an entirely new class of biotransformation. C-F bond formation. A fluorination enzyme has recently been isolated, cloned and overexpressed from the bacterium Streptomyces cattleya. The enzyme combines inorganic fluoride with S-adenosyl-Lmethionine to generate an organic fluorine metabolite, 5'-fluorodeoxyadenoise. This is the first native enzyme which has been isolated with the capability to generate C-F bonds. Of course organo fluorine compounds are of huge commercial importance so it is attractive now to consider the prospects of using this enzyme in biotransformations. The enzyme is immediately attractive as a catalyst for the synthesis of F-18 labelled organic fluorine biochemicals (nucleosides, riboses etc). This has already been demonstrated. There are prospects too of placing the gene for the fluorinaytion enzyme into other hosts for scale up biotransformations. The purpose of this research is now to explore the substrate specificity of the enzyme. This is being pursued with a background that the enzyme shows some substrate specificity (eg 2'-deoxy series) and that there is a very recent X-ray structure of the enzyme bound to SAM and to the product 5'-FDA.A range of candidate substrates are identified for synthesis and enzymatic assay.
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Organisation Website: http://www.st-and.ac.uk