Roelfes Group

Our postdoc Valeria Poggetti @valeriapoggetti.bsky.social presented her work on Nucleophilic Catalysis in Thiophenol-Based Designer Enzymes at #NWOChains

@stratinghinst.bsky.social @rug.nl

Last week I have defended my PhD in the beautiful Aula of the @rug.nl with a thesis entitled "Mapping the Sequence Landscape of an Artificial Enzyme". Such a huge diploma is proportionate to the immensely beautiful experience behind a PhD in the @roelfesgroup.bsky.social. Thank you very much to all!

Upper half of a PhD position accountment in the field of biochemistry.

Lower half of a PhD position accountment in the field of biochemistry.

I am looking for a PhD student interested in enzymes!

For the full annoucement: www.chemzymes.com

📢📢 New paper out!

AI and networks can be used to predict distal mutations in proteins, even in artificial enzymes!
Check out the article here
----‐> doi.org/10.1016/j.ij...

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Engineering fluoroacetate dehalogenase by growth-based selections to degrade non-natural organofluorides The widespread use of organofluorides in modern society has inadvertently led to the bioaccumulation of harmful pollutants, most prominently per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS). In princi...

With #PFAS and other organofluorides wreaking havoc, we set out to engineer natural defluorinases for man-made organofluorides. All credit goes to the amazing @suzannejansen.bsky.social, who has outdone herself in this project! (1/5)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our postdoc @francdefel.bsky.social just gave a fantastic talk on gold-based artificial metalloenzymes for asymmetric catalysis. #Biotrans2025
@stratinghinst.bsky.social @rug.nl

Please also check posters 007 and 257 to find out more about radical biocatalysis and leveraging epistasis efficiently in artificial enzymes, respectively.
@stratinghinst.bsky.social

#Biotrans2025 Gerard just gave an overview on recent advances in non-canonical amino acids application for novel artificial (metallo)enzymes from our group.

#RepArtZymes pre-conference in Basel also brought together some of our old and current group members.
@zhizhou1619.bsky.social @reubenlg.bsky.social

Our group members are attending #RepArtZymes Biotrans 2025 pre-conference. Gerard just presented our work on Artificial Metalloenzymes Featuring Thiol-Based Amino Acids. Compliments to the organisers #WardGroup for the fantastic program and a great get-together of the key players in our field.

Great experience at the Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference! Amazing time around a neat program.

Extremely grateful for giving me the chance to share my work in an environment that pushes towards sustainable research

#GreenChemistry #MSCA

@acsgci.bsky.social @roelfesgroup.bsky.social

Roelfes group - Open Positions PhD position on Hybrid biocatalytic cascades aided by Machine learning (1.0 FTE)

📢📢📢 PhD Opportunity!

Join our research group at RUG! We're seeking a motivated PhD student for a project on biocatalytic cascade processes combining natural and designer enzymes, supported by machine learning.
Click below to learn more — and feel free to share!

sites.google.com/rug.nl/roelf...

Very proud to share that one of my main PhD projects has been published in @chemicalscience.rsc.org, and that it has been selected as a #ChemSciPicks of the week paper!

Keep reading below for more details, or check out the full paper for free online: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

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Check out this week’s #ChemSciPicks from Gerard Roelfes (@roelfesgroup.bsky.social, @stratinghinst.bsky.social) et al.!

‘Genetically Encoded 3-Aminotyrosine as Catalytic Residue in a Designer Friedel-Crafts Alkylase’

Read it here for free: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

#ChemSky 🧪

Had an amazing week at #ACSSpring2025! It was an intense but incredibly rewarding experience with top speakers and insightful discussions. I'm grateful for the opportunity to present my research in the biocatalysis session - awesome interaction! #MSCA @roelfesgroup.bsky.social

Had an amazing week at the MetRaZymes @metrazymes.bsky.social Winter School in Hirschegg, Austria! It was a pleasure to learn, share, and connect with fellow researchers in our doctoral network. We organized and attended insightful lectures and workshops on ⬇️🧵

A spaceship as an allegory to an independent, self recycling system.

We are announcing about 30 PhD positions in the @fwf-at.bsky.social Cluster of Excellence Circular Bioengineering www.circularbioengineering.at/jobs
9 projects open in Progamme 2 (Self-Sustainable Microbial Systems) in 4 Austrian Universities

@stratinghinst.bsky.social
@unigroningen.bsky.social

Huge congratulations to our former PhD student Reuben @reubenlg.bsky.social on winning the KNCV-DCS Thesis Award from the Dutch Catalysis Society for his outstanding PhD research in our group! A well-deserved recognition of his hard work and dedication. 🎉

Tanja presented her work on metallaphotoredox catalysis in designer photoenzymes.
Congrats to both of you!
@stratinghinst.bsky.social @unigroningen.bsky.social

Our group members Tanja and Franco @francdefel.bsky.social presented their exciting research at NCCC this week.
Franco talked about his work on asymmetric catalysis in gold-based artificial metalloenzymes.

This accomplishment would not have been possible without the tireless work of Ru Jiang and @fabricas.bsky.social and the expertise of Andy-Mark Thunnissen in solving the holoenzyme structure.
Great work everyone! 🏆

An artificial copper‐Michaelase featuring a genetically encoded bipyridine ligand for asymmetric additions to nitroalkenes Artificial metalloenzymes (ArMs) are an attractive approach to achieving “new to nature” biocatalytic transformations. In this work, a novel copper-dependent artificial Michaelase (Cu_Michaelase) com...

Check it out here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The excellent properties of the evolved artificial metalloenzyme enabled its application in preparative-scale synthesis, yielding valuable synthons for the production of pharmaceutical compounds.

Using a magnetic bead-based assay, we successfully evolved this newly-generated biocatalyst, achieving perfect enantioselectivity and high yields in the asymmetric new-to-nature addition to nitroalkenes.

Our latest publication is out in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social!

We generated and engineered a novel artificial metalloenzyme for the enantioselective synthesis of a panel of γ-nitro-carbonyl compounds on a preparative scale.

Grateful to be part of this awesome project lead by @brouwerb.bsky.social. Take a look to our preprint about unlocking iminium ion catalysis when using amino-tyrosine as a genetically encoded amino acid! 🤓
#MSCA @roelfesgroup.bsky.social

Check out our latest preprint, in which we demonstrate the first example of using noncanonical 3-aminotyrosine (aY) as a catalytic residue for iminium activation in a designer enzyme!

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Check out our latest work where we combined mutagenesis, crystallography, and computational approaches to uncover the evolutionary specialization of a promiscuous designer enzyme. Kudos to @reubenlg.bsky.social and the entire team!
Find more details in the thread below:

Fantastic start of 2025 for the group. Our own Lars Longwitz won the @unigroningen.bsky.social FSE Postdoc prize for 2024. This prize celebrates his excellence in research and great potential of becoming a scientific leader. Well well deserved Lars! 👏

@stratinghinst.bsky.social