What's Happening?
Researchers led by Rongzhen Zhang have developed a strategy to produce bilirubin at gram-scale through an in vitro cascade process. This method mitigates the impact of interfering side products, such as Fe2+ ions and carbon monoxide, which are by-products of heme oxygenase activity. By using etidronic acid chelation and pH control, the team suppressed metal coordination, while an O2-tolerant carbon monoxide dehydrogenase was integrated to oxidize CO to CO2. This approach, coupled with formate dehydrogenase for NADPH recycling, enabled near-quantitative conversion of heme to bilirubin.
Why It's Important?
This advancement in bilirubin production demonstrates the potential of system-level control over enzyme-focused optimization. By addressing inhibitory intermediates,
the research highlights how mechanistic insight and process design can significantly enhance performance. This approach could have broader implications for the catalysis community, suggesting that balancing different chemistries may be more critical than optimizing individual catalysts. The findings could lead to more efficient industrial processes in biochemical production.
