The Barbas group is also involved in antibody catalysis of the formation of bonds between carbon atoms and chemical catalysis by modified DNA enzymes. Kim Janda and his team also apply catalytic antibodies to form carbon-carbon bonds and have developed new sensors for molecules derived from chemical weapons. Nerve gas agents can now be detected by using monoclonal antibodies. M.G. Finn evolves antibodies with specifically engineered catalytic sites for metal complexes. Ehud Keinan's group has succeeded in assembling an antibody with a metalloporphyrin catalytic site, and Steve Mayfield's research centers on the production of antibodies in microalgae.
Proteins produced in plant systems are safe and offer advantages of large-scale production.
Such plant systems lead to valuable human therapeutic agents and other proteins that were prohibitively expensive only a decade ago. Highlights of the accomplishments in chemistry last year include the synthesis of anticancer epothilones and eleutherobins by K.C. Nicolaou, chairman of the Department of Chemistry. These molecules were made individually first and then as combinatorial libraries. The Boger group has probed the interaction of antitumor antibiotics with DNA through organic synthesis, using structural modifications extending even to mirror-image isomers of the natural products. Solution-phase combinatorial chemistry also continues to flourish in Dr. Boger's laboratory.