About the Speaker

Lionel Cheruzel grew up in Cannes, South of France, before moving to the United States in 1999 to pursue his graduate studies. Upon completion of his Ph.D. at the University of Louisville, KY, he joined as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Prof. Harry B. Gray at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA. In Fall 2009, he started as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at San Jose State University, CA. He received early tenure and promotion in 2014 and was promoted to professor in 2019. Dr. Cheruzel’s research interests center around the use of visible light to activate engineered P450 enzymes and perform selective oxyfunctionalization of various substrate C-H bonds. He was named the 2021 SJSU Outstanding Professor, received the 2019 Henry Dreyfus Teacher Scholar and the 2013 JBC Herbert Tabor Young Investigator Awards.

About the Seminar

Title: Harnessing P450 biocatalysis with Ru(II)-diimine complexes

Abstract: Cytochrome P450s are heme-thiolate enzymes that activate molecular dioxygen to carry out selective C-H oxyfunctionalization on a wide range of organic substrates. 1 Our laboratory has leveraged the photochemical properties of Ru(II)-diimine complexes to efficiently activate several P450 enzymes upon visible light excitation. 2 A combination of rational and directed evolution approaches has been employed to enhance the hybrid enzymes photocatalytic activity and expand their substrate scope. In addition, the tunability and derivatization of the inorganic complexes promoted the formation of dimeric structures and heterogeneous biocatalysts and provided insights into the rate-limiting steps in the light-driven hybrid P450 enzymes. 3 Recently, we turned our attention to the development of chemoenzymatic syntheses and the merging of chemical catalysis with P450 biocatalysis. Building on a selective light-driven approach for the trifluoromethylation /oxyfunctionalization of several substituted arenes, 4 we have developed a one-pot chemoenzymatic route to access various biaryl alkanoic acid derivatives.

References
1. Urlacher, V.B.; Girhard, M. Trends Biotechnol. 2019, 37, 882-897.
2. Tran, N. H.; Nguyen, D.; Dwaraknath, S.; Mahadevan, S.; Chavez, G.; Nguyen, A.; Dao, T.; Mullen, S.; Nguyen, T.A. ; Cheruzel, L.E. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 14484-7.
3. C. Eidenschenk, L. Cheruzel Ru(II)-diimine complexes and Cytochrome P450 Hand in Hand, J. Inorg. Biochem., 2020, 213, 111254-111266.
4. Sosa, V.; Melkie, M.; Sulca, C.; Li, J.; Tang, L.; Li, J.; Faris, J.; Foley, B.; Banh, T.; Kato, M.; Cheruzel, L. E., Acs Catal 2018, 8, 2225-2229.

Image Credit: San Jose State University Website