(370a) Encapsulation of Sole Protein as Biocatalytic Nanogels

Biocatalysis has been increasingly viewed as a competitive and cost-effective technology for the manufacture of fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals and agrochemical intermediates. Thermal stability of enzymes is one of the most concerned properties of biocatalysts. Here we present a new method of aqueous in-situ polymerization to encapsulate single protein as biocatalytic nanogels, using horseradish peroxidase (HRP) as a model protein. TEM showed that each HRP could be caged in one poly(acrylamide) nanogel. Compared to its native counterpart, the encapsulated HRP exhibits a significantly improved stability at high temperature and with the presence of organic solvent,. It is noticeable that the encapsulated HRP showed similar oxidization efficiency as the native HRP. For the improved stability, especially without the compromise of catalytic capability, the biocatalytic nanogels are quite suitable to many applications, such as biosensor, biosynthesis and bioremediation.