Learning from Nature

Dr Patricia Rodriguez-Macia's research group focuses on the field of Bioinorganic Chemistry, at the intersection of chemistry, biology, physical chemistry and materials science. The aim is to learn from natural enzymes to mimic nature and to develop novel green catalytic processes, more efficient catalysts, and new synthetic materials.

The group focuses on studying two classes of metalloenzymes, hydrogenases and CO dehydrogenases, on understanding how earth-abundant metals in their active site can perform efficient key chemical reactions that are very challenging for chemists to carry out on a laboratory scale. The complementary spectroscopic techniques and electrochemistry are used to access all intermediate states in the performance of these enzymes to discover novel reactivities and optimize the catalytic mechanism.