August 26, 2024
A new manuscript by Jung, Jiang, Su, Inaba, Khoury, and Banta describes the engineering of the oxyanion metal binding protein ModA/WtpA in Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans to extend its ability to bind rhenium in addition to molybdenum, tungsten and chromium. Overexpression of the mutant protein in A. ferrrooxidans enables the cells to bind and recover these industrially important metals. These results demonstrate how protein engineering and synthetic biology can be used to create new solutions for critical material production. The new results were published in JACS Au and the article was featured as an ACS Editor's Choice.