De novo Design and Evolutionary Development of Enzymes

Some caution should be exercised however when working with synthetic enzymes. A similarly designed and expressed de novo enzyme to mimic the naturally occurring triose phosphate isomerase was reported in 2004 only for the papers to be retracted when it appeared that contamination by unmodified Escherichia coli had been responsible for the observed enzymic activity. For this reason it seems preferential to target reactions that have no known natural catalysts. 

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