KAIST and IBS have developed a groundbreaking technology that combines metals with Vitamin B2, the first of its kind in the world. A research team from Korea has succeeded in creating an artificial enzyme that surpasses natural ones by coupling metals with the common nutrient Vitamin B2. This innovative development has the potential to revolutionize energy production, environmental purification, and drug development.
On November 11, KAIST announced that Professor Baek Yoon-jung’s chemistry team, in collaboration with researcher Kwon Seong-yeon from the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), has successfully developed a new artificial enzyme by incorporating metals into ‘flavin’, the key component of Vitamin B2. The research findings were published on November 5 in the international journal ‘Inorganic Chemistry’ and featured as a cover article.
Vitamin B2 acts as a coenzyme that converts food into energy in the body. The research team created a novel catalyst by integrating metals with flavin, enhancing its electron transfer function with the reaction control capacity of the metals.
Flavin features a complex ring structure of nitrogen and oxygen, posing challenges for selective metal binding, which has long been a stumbling block for the scientific community. The team overcame this by designing a spot within the flavin molecule for metal binding and precisely arranging a ‘ligand’ structure to secure the metal, adopting a metallurgical approach. Their meticulous control of electronic and spatial interactions around the metals led to the successful synthesis of a stable flavin-metal compound.
This breakthrough marks the first successful combination of flavin’s unique properties and the reactivity of metals within a single system, opening up possibilities for developing ‘metal-based artificial enzymes’ capable of finely tuning chemical reactions.
The ligand developed by the team not only binds to the metal center but also forms hydrogen bonds, granting it dual functionality. Furthermore, the ability to control the directionality of these hydrogen bonds allows for precise design of the molecular environment around the metal.
In complexes formed with iron ions, the flavin ligand was observed to transition its form depending on surrounding conditions and alter the direction of hydrogen bonding. The team systematically elucidated this through single crystal X-ray analysis, spectroscopic measurements, electrochemical experiments, and quantum mechanical calculations.
Professor Baek Yoon-jung mentioned, “We’ve expanded flavin’s limitations found in nature to a new component in coordination chemistry, setting a new direction for designing next-generation catalysts and energy conversion materials based on biomolecules.”
This research was selected as a cover story in the November 5 issue of the international journal ‘Inorganic Chemistry’, published by the American Chemical Society (ACS), and was also recognized in the ‘ACS Editors’ Choice’, which features one article daily from over 90 ACS journals.