Enzymes are nature’s tiny powerhouses, helping with everything from digesting food to making it quicker and safer to produce medicines, food and renewable fuels. While they can enhance chemical reactions, their fragile nature makes it difficult to use them in typical industrial processes.

Normally, enzymes work best at moderate temperatures and neutral conditions. But many chemical reactions occur in extreme environments — well outside an enzyme’s comfort zone. To address this problem, University of Missouri researchers are creating tiny, scaffold-like structures called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to protect the enzymes.

“You can think of the enzyme as a deep-sea diver capable of doing amazing work but vulnerable to its surroundings,” Gary Baker, an associate professor of chemistry at Mizzou’s College of Arts and Science and co-author on the study, said. “The MOF acts like a shark cage around the diver. It’s sturdy enough to guard the enzyme from the harsh conditions, but porous enough to allow it to continue doing its job — speeding up chemical reactions.”