University of Bristol discovers enzymes don’t need water to function

In the UK, research by scientists at the University of Bristol has challenged one of the key axioms in biology — that enzymes need water to function. The breakthrough could eventually lead to the development of new industrial catalysts for processing biodiesel. Enzymes are large biological molecules that catalyze thousands of different chemical reactions that are essential for all life, from converting food into energy, to controlling how our cells replicate DNA.

Throughout this diverse range of biological environments in which enzymes perform their various roles, the only constant is an abundance of water. However, new findings published this week in Nature Communications, show that water is not essential for enzymes to fulfill their biological role.