Johannes Rebelein

Research Area

The Microbial Metalloenzymes laboratory engineers metalloenzymes to elucidate the underlying principles and mechanisms of metalloenzyme catalysis. The Rebelein group focuses on the activation of nitrogen and carbon dioxide by the enzyme nitrogenase. Harnessing theses insights, we engineer and design metalloenzymes to develop improved catalysts for the production of bulk chemicals, including fertilizers, hydrocarbons and hydrogen. The long-term goal is to develop semi-artificial metalloenzymes as building blocks for the construction of novel metabolic pathways in synthetic organisms. This synthetic biology approach will help us to construct microbes with artificial traits for the production of bulk chemicals, fuels and the sequestration of CO₂.

Expertise

Metalloenzymes
Enzymology
Protein Engineering
Nitrogenases
N2 and CO2 Reduction
Microbiology

Recent Publications

1. Rebelein JG^*, Cotelle Y^*, Garabedian B, Ward TR. (2019) Chemical Optimization of a Whole-Cell Transfer Hydrogenation Using Carbonic Anhydrase as a Host Protein. ACS Catal. 9(5), 4173-8. (^* Authors contributed equally to this work).

2. Rebelein JG, Stiebritz M, Lee CC, Hu Y. (2017) Activation and Reduction of Carbon Dioxide by Nitrogenase Iron Proteins. Nat Chem Biol. 13(2), 147-9.

3. Rebelein JG, Lee CC, Hu Y, Ribbe MW. (2016) The in vivo Hydrocarbon Formation by Vanadium Nitrogenase Follows a Secondary Metabolic Pathway. Nat Commun. 7,