美国麻省理工学院化学系B. L. Pentelute研究组取得最新进展。他们提出通过自动流动化学合成蛋白质。2020年5月9日，《科学》杂志发表了这一成果。

他们报告了高效的化学反应，以及与自动快速流动仪器相匹配的化学物质，可直接制造长达327个连续反应的长达164个氨基酸的肽链。他们通过化学合成九种代表酶、结构单位和调节因子的不同蛋白质链来证明该方法的实用性。

纯化和折叠后，合成材料显示出与生物表达蛋白质相当的生物物理和酶促性质。高保真自动流动化学是生产无核糖体的单结构域蛋白的替代方法。

据悉，核糖体可在数分钟内产生蛋白质，并在很大程度上受蛋白质氨基酸的限制。

附：英文原文

Title: Synthesis of proteins by automated flow chemistry

Author: N. Hartrampf, A. Saebi, M. Poskus, Z. P. Gates, A. J. Callahan, A. E. Cowfer, S. Hanna, S. Antilla, C. K. Schissel, A. J. Quartararo, X. Ye, A. J. Mijalis, M. D. Simon, A. Loas, S. Liu, C. Jessen, T. E. Nielsen, B. L. Pentelute

Issue&Volume: 2020/05/29

Abstract: Ribosomes can produce proteins in minutes and are largely constrained to proteinogenic amino acids. Here, we report highly efficient chemistry matched with an automated fast-flow instrument for the direct manufacturing of peptide chains up to 164 amino acids long over 327 consecutive reactions. The machine is rapid: Peptide chain elongation is complete in hours. We demonstrate the utility of this approach by the chemical synthesis of nine different protein chains that represent enzymes, structural units, and regulatory factors. After purification and folding, the synthetic materials display biophysical and enzymatic properties comparable to the biologically expressed proteins. High-fidelity automated flow chemistry is an alternative for producing single-domain proteins without the ribosome.

DOI: 10.1126/science.abb2491

Source: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6494/980