Replacing the heme in hemoglobin and myoglobin with other macrocycles

Enzymes posess several qualities that make them ideal for facilitating chemical reactions. Their greater stability in aqueous environments and their ability to reduce transition state energies lead the enzyme to often be more effective when compared to naked small molecule catalysts. One of the aims of this research is to explore new ways to insert small molecule catalysts into a protein environment. Using hemoglobin and myoglobin as our protein constructs, we have added several non-heme small molecule inorganic complexes into the protein's heme pocket. To facilitate the this process we are using click chemistry to covalently attach the complexes to the protein. We have been specifically focusing on inserting small molecule catalysts capable of reducing CO2. Synthetic efforts and catalysis experiments will be discussed.