Chemistry Seminar - Expanding the Synthetic Toolbox: Harnessing Biocatalysis for the Synthesis of Complex Molecules

Title: Expanding the Synthetic Toolbox: Harnessing Biocatalysis for the Synthesis of Complex Molecules

Speaker: Dr Lauren Murray, Monash University

Abstract: Terrestrial and marine bacteria are a compelling source of unique natural products with diverse biological properties and immense potential as therapeutic agents. While accessing these complex molecules through traditional synthetic methods can pose many challenges, nature has evolved elegant strategies for the synthesis of these intricate compounds, employing sophisticated enzyme catalysts. Leveraging this insight, chemoenzymatic synthesis and biocatalysis have emerged as powerful strategies in the laboratory to access these metabolites. The combination of these tools allows access to diverse natural product scaffolds, while adding biosynthetic enzymes to the toolkit of synthetic chemists in the quest for the most efficient methods to construct complex organic molecules. This work leverages a combination of traditional synthetic methods and the power of nature’s tools to build diverse scaffolds with therapeutic potential. The synthetic utility of these enzymes is explored to identify biocatalysts with broad substrate scope, high catalytic efficiency and outstanding site- and stereoselectivity. These biocatalytic approaches are used to efficiently access natural and novel compounds with interesting biological potential.

Bio: Dr. Lauren Murray earned her Ph.D. in 2021 under Professor Jonathan George at the University of Adelaide. She also conducted part of her Ph.D. research with Professor Bradley Moore at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (UC San Diego), investigating marine natural product biosynthesis. In 2021, Dr. Murray received the Lew Mander Best PhD Thesis in Organic Chemistry Award from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) and the University of Adelaide Research Medal for the top physical sciences thesis. She then undertook postdoctoral research with Professor Alison Narayan at the University of Michigan, using enzymes as biocatalysts for chemoenzymatic synthesis. In 2024, Dr. Murray began her independent research at Monash University as an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) Fellow. Her current work focuses on integrating enzymes into the chemical synthesis of complex bioactive molecules.