General

Yu-Fei Ao

Associate Professor


CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and Function

Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Email: aoyufe@iccas.ac.cn

Address: Zhongguancun North First Street 2,100190 Beijing, China

ORCID number: 0000-0002-9415-2181

Research Areas

​Biocatalysis


Biotransformations have become an important method in organic synthesis owing to their high efficiency, excellent selectivity and mild reaction conditions. Our group has focused on the biotransformations of racemic nitriles and amides catalyzed by Rhodococcus erythropolis AJ270 for the synthesisi of chiral carboxylic acids and amides, and the mechanism of kinetic resolution of racemic nitriles and amides has also been explored. Now we will design and synthesize novel prochiral and meso-dinitriles and diamides, and develop their biotransformations under whole cell catalysis to synthesize highly enantiopure carboxylic acids and derivatives. The effects of electronic nature and steric hindrance of the substitutents on efficiency and enantioselectivity of the biotransformations will be systematically investigated to find the rules of biocatalytic desymmetrization. On the base of the obtained gene sequence of the amidase, computational method will be applied to construct the protein domain, active center and enzyme-substrate interactions, in order to explore the enantioselective mechanism. Taking the enantiopure carboxylic acids and derivatives as the key starting materials, high efficient transformations will be developed to explore their applications in the synthesis of natural products and bioactive compounds.

Education

2003 - 2007   B.S.  College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, China

2008 - 2014   Ph.D.  Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China (Supervisor: Prof. Mei-Xiang Wang)

Experience

2014 - 2019   Assistant Professor, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China

2019 - now    Associate Professor, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China

Publications

   
Papers

Zi-Lin Li, Shuxin Pei, Ziying Chen, Teng-Yu Huang, Xu-Dong Wang, Lin Shen,* Xuebo Chen,* Qi-Qiang Wang, De-Xian Wang, Yu-Fei Ao,* Machine learning-assisted amidase-catalytic enantioselectivity prediction and rational design of variants for improving enantioselectivity, Nat. Commun202415, 8778.

Chenghai Sun,* Gen Lu, Baoming Chen, Guangjun Li, Ya Wu, Yannik Brack, Dong Yi, Yu-Fei Ao, Shuke Wu, Ren Wei, Yuhui Sun, Guifa Zhai,* Uwe T. Bornscheuer,* Direct asymmetric synthesis of β-branched aromatic α-amino acids using engineered phenylalanine ammonia lyases, Nat. Commun202415, 8264.

Marian J. Menke, Yu-Fei Ao,* Uwe T. Bornscheuer,* Practical Machine Learning-Assisted Design Protocol for Protein Engineering: Transaminase Engineering for the Conversion of Bulky Substrates, ACS Catal. 202414, 6462-6469.

Yu-Fei Ao,* Mark Dӧrr, Marian J. Menke, Stefan Born, Egon Heuson, Uwe T. Bornscheuer,* Data-Driven Protein Engineering for Improving Catalytic Activity and Selectivity, ChemBioChem 202425, e202300754. (invited concept review)

Yu-Fei Ao,* Shuxin Pei, Chao Xiang, Marian J. Menke, Lin Shen,* Chenghai Sun, Mark Dörr, Stefan Born, Matthias Höhne, Uwe T. Bornscheuer,* "Structure- and data-driven protein engineering of transaminases for improving activity and stereoselectivity", Angew. Chem. Int. Ed2023, 62, e202301660.

Chao Xiang,+ Yu-Fei Ao,+ Matthias Höhne, Uwe T. Bornscheuer,* "Shifting the pH optima of (R)-selective transaminases by protein engineering", Int. J. Mol. Sci. 202223, 15347.

Yu-Fei Ao,Hui-Juan Hu, Cheng-Xin Zhao, Peng Chen, Tingting Huang, Hui Chen,* Qi-Qiang Wang, De-Xian Wang, Mei-Xiang Wang, “Reversal and Amplification of the Enantioselectivity of Biocatalytic Desymmetrization toward Meso Heterocyclic Dicarboxamides Enabled by Rational Engineering of Amidase”, ACS Catal2021, 11, 6900-6907.

 

Peng-Wei Xu, Xiao-Yuan Cui, Chen Chen, Feng Zhou, Jin-Sheng Yu, Yu-Fei Ao,* Jian Zhou,* "Enantioselective synthesis of Cα‑tetrasubstituted N‑hydroxyl-α-amino nitriles via cyanation of ketonitrones using Me2(CH2Cl)SiCN", Org. Lett. 202123, 8471-8476.


Hui-Juan Hu, Qi-Qiang Wang, De-Xian Wang, Yu-Fei Ao,* "Modification of the enantioselectivity of biocatalytic meso-desymmetrization for synthesis of both enantiomers of cis-1,2-disubstituted cyclohexane by Amidase engineering", Adv. Synth. Catal. 2021363, 4538-4543.


Hui-Juan Hu, Qi-Qiang Wang, De-Xian Wang, Yu-Fei Ao,* "Enantioselective biocatalytic desymmetrization for synthesis of enantiopure cis-3,4-disubstituted pyrrolidines", Green Synth. Catal. 20212, 324-327.


Hui-Juan Hu, Peng Chen, Yu-Fei Ao,* Qi-Qiang Wang, De-Xian Wang, Mei-Xiang Wang, “Highly Efficient Biocatalytic Desymmetrization of Meso Carbocyclic 1,3-Dicarboxamides: A Versatile Route for Enantiopure 1,3-Disubstituted Cyclohexanes and Cyclopentanes”, Org. Chem. Front. 2019, 6, 808-812.

 
Yu-Fei Ao,* Li-Bin Zhang, Qi-Qiang Wang, De-Xian Wang, Mei-Xiang Wang, Biocatalytic desymmetrization of prochiral 3-aryl and 3-arylmethyl glutaramides: Different remote substituent effect on catalytic efficiency and enantioselectivity, Adv. Synth. Catal. 2018, 360, 4594-4603.
 
Yu-Fei Ao, De-Xian Wang, Liang Zhao, Mei-Xiang Wang*, "Synthesis of quaternary carbon-containing and functionalized enantiopure 3-carbamoylcyclo-pentanecarboxylic acids from biocatalytic enantioselective desymmetrization of meso cyclopentane-1,3-dicarboxamides", Chem. Asian J. 2015, 10, 938-947.
 
Yu-Fei Ao, De-Xian Wang, Liang Zhao, Mei-Xiang Wang*, "Biotransformations of racemic 2,3-allenenitriles in biphasic systems: Synthesis and transfor-mations of enantioenriched axially chiral 2,3-allenoic acids and their derivatives", J. Org. Chem. 2014, 79, 3103-3110.
 
Yu-Fei Ao, Dong-Hui Leng, De-Xian Wang, Liang Zhao, Mei-Xiang Wang*, "Efficient synthesis of highly enantiopure β-lactam derivatives from biocatalytic transformations of amides and nitriles", Tetrahedron 2014, 70, 4309-4316.