TBC, nobody should think that making graphene enzymatically is in any way near-term plausible, or should be attempted as a project (god forbid), just that that’s the only way I’ve heard of making it biologically that isn’t an obvious type error. If someone wanted to write a sci-fi with biologically synthesized graphene, I would nod along if they said that.
Curious if you have any more thoughts on that—“maybe this could be done if they figure out the inverse folding problem idk” was my best impression when I looked into it 5 years and a bio degree ago, but I don’t know much about either the DA reaction or how carbon nanotubes are made etc.
(I’m bullish on the prospect of “Boltz/AF3/BioEmu successor models of the nearish future generalize enough that you can make an enzyme for darn near anything where you can make a theozyme/the thermodynamics work out,” and completely ignorant of DA thermodynamics)
Wrote the below before remembering “Jude you dumb idiot, PAHs are stupid insoluble, that’s like… that’s going to stop you no matter what enzyme you make. I guess you could try to do it in organic solvent, but that’s another huge wrinkle at a minimum.” Anyways, the below is cool news and still stands for things less hellish than graphene.
Actually, it turns out that “near future” was “negative one day” in this case. DISCO was just released, an AF3 successor model for sequence and structure co-design. At a very quick glance (haven’t dug deep into it yet), it generated enzymes for some new-to-nature reactions by conditioning on “bind-to-the-transition-state-geometry, sorta.”
So if the Diels-Alder thermodynamics check out, and the gippities are optimistic but I haven’t verified it yet, I retract my prior statement. Someone could reasonably try this as a project.
You could probably just condition jointly on “is a functional DAase for a bunch of large polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.” Who knows if that’d yield a functional enzyme with DISCO, but if it doesn’t, the models will probably be in the right place not too long from now.
EDIT: Friend who works directly on the problem says the paper is very transparent, but more wet lab is needed to see how far these things generalize. Regardless, a good proof of principle.
TBC, nobody should think that making graphene enzymatically is in any way near-term plausible, or should be attempted as a project (god forbid), just that that’s the only way I’ve heard of making it biologically that isn’t an obvious type error. If someone wanted to write a sci-fi with biologically synthesized graphene, I would nod along if they said that.
Curious if you have any more thoughts on that—“maybe this could be done if they figure out the inverse folding problem idk” was my best impression when I looked into it 5 years and a bio degree ago, but I don’t know much about either the DA reaction or how carbon nanotubes are made etc.
(I’m bullish on the prospect of “Boltz/AF3/BioEmu successor models of the nearish future generalize enough that you can make an enzyme for darn near anything where you can make a theozyme/the thermodynamics work out,” and completely ignorant of DA thermodynamics)
For some limits of enzymes, see these posts of mine:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FijbeqdovkgAusGgz/grey-goo-is-unlikely
https://www.bhauth.com/blog/chemistry/metabolic engineering limits.html
Wrote the below before remembering “Jude you dumb idiot, PAHs are stupid insoluble, that’s like… that’s going to stop you no matter what enzyme you make. I guess you could try to do it in organic solvent, but that’s another huge wrinkle at a minimum.” Anyways, the below is cool news and still stands for things less hellish than graphene.
Actually, it turns out that “near future” was “negative one day” in this case. DISCO was just released, an AF3 successor model for sequence and structure co-design. At a very quick glance (haven’t dug deep into it yet), it generated enzymes for some new-to-nature reactions by conditioning on “bind-to-the-transition-state-geometry, sorta.”
So if the Diels-Alder thermodynamics check out, and the gippities are optimistic but I haven’t verified it yet, I retract my prior statement. Someone could reasonably try this as a project.
You could probably just condition jointly on “is a functional DAase for a bunch of large polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.” Who knows if that’d yield a functional enzyme with DISCO, but if it doesn’t, the models will probably be in the right place not too long from now.
EDIT: Friend who works directly on the problem says the paper is very transparent, but more wet lab is needed to see how far these things generalize. Regardless, a good proof of principle.