2023 Joseph W. Richards Fellowship – Summary Report: Toward High-throughput Electrochemical Screening of in vivo Synthesized Metalloenzymes

Abstract

In recent years, bioinspired metalloenzymes have proven a viable and sustainable method for hydrogen production via the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). By using in vivo directed evolution synthetic techniques, hydrogenase systems based on rubredoxin (Rd) scaffolds with Ni substituted metal centers have proven promising molecular catalysts. However, insight into the mechanism of hydrogen production between different mutants has proven tricky, as electrochemical characterization of the high number of mutants is slow. High-throughput electrochemistry has started to emerge at the nano and macroscale in the form of scanning electrochemical methods and by using an array of electrochemical cells. Here we utilize the array microcell method (AMCM)to electrochemically investigate each enzyme at one array.