Random heteropolymers as enzyme mimics

Despite successes in replicating the primary-secondary-tertiary structure hierarchy of protein, it remains elusive to synthetically materialize protein functions that are deeply rooted in their chemical, structural and dynamic heterogeneities^1-12. We propose that for polymers with backbone chemistries different from that of proteins, programming spatial and temporal projections of sidechains at the segmental level can be effective in replicating protein behaviours^13,14; and leveraging the rotational freedom of polymer can mitigate deficiencies in monomeric sequence specificity and achieve behaviour uniformity at the ensemble level^2,3,15-20. Here, guided by the active site analysis of about 1,300 metalloproteins, we design random heteropolymers (RHPs) as enzyme mimics based on one-pot synthesis. We introduce key monomers as the equivalents of the functional residues of protein and statistically modulate the chemical characteristics of key monomer-containing segments, such as segmental hydrophobicity²¹. The resultant RHPs form pseudo-active sites that provide key monomers with protein-like microenvironments, co-localize substrates with catalytic or cofactor-binding sidechains and catalyse reactions such as oxidation and cyclization of citronellal with isopulegol/menthoglycol selectivity. This RHP design led to enzyme-like materials that can retain catalytic activity under non-biological conditions, are compatible with scalable processing and have expanded substrate scope, including environmentally long-lasting antibiotic tetracycline²².