Rate My Professor Florian Hollfelder

Professor Florian Hollfelder serves as Professor of Chemical and Synthetic Biology in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, part of the School of Biological Sciences. His educational background includes a Diplom-Chemiker from the Technical University of Berlin and an MPhil from Cambridge University, along with MA, PhD degrees. He conducted formative research at Stanford University with Dan Herschlag on free-energy relationships in enzymes. During his PhD in the Chemistry Department of Cambridge University under Tony Kirby, he focused on enzyme models and physical-organic chemistry, collaborating with Dan Tawfik on the mechanism and evolution of model enzymes such as catalytic antibodies. Following this, he completed postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School with Chris T. Walsh, investigating the biosynthesis and action of the natural antibiotic microcin B17. In 2001, Hollfelder returned to Cambridge to establish his independent research group in the Department of Biochemistry, progressing to his current professorship. Additionally, he holds positions as University Reader in Chemical Biology, Staff Fellow, and Director of Studies in Natural Sciences (Biological) at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

The research in the Hollfelder Group centers on chemical biology, aiming to understand molecular recognition processes in chemistry and biology to enable the description, manipulation, and creation of functional molecules. Core interests encompass protein evolution and the origins of functional proteins, biological catalysis and molecular recognition explained in chemical and biophysical terms, and the development of biocatalysts for green chemistry transformations. The group employs ultrahigh-throughput methods using picoliter droplets in microfluidic devices for directed evolution and enzyme discovery, as well as single-cell transcriptomics to study cell development from pluripotent stem cells. Key publications include "Balancing specificity and promiscuity in enzyme evolution: Multidimensional activity transitions in the alkaline phosphatase superfamily" (2019, Journal of the American Chemical Society), "Evolutionary repurposing of a sulfatase: A new Michaelis complex leads to efficient transition state charge offset" (2018, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), and highly influential works on microfluidics such as "Microdroplets in microfluidics: an evolving platform for discoveries in chemistry and biology" (2010, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, cited over 1300 times). His contributions advance biotechnology, synthetic chemistry, medicine, and sustainable industrial processes through engineered enzymes.