Cofactor and Redox Balancing: The Hidden Accounting of Synthetic Biology

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Synthetic biology diagrams often show pathways as clean chains of arrows. A feedstock enters, an enzyme changes it, another enzyme changes it again, and the desired molecule appears at the end. Those drawings are useful because they make a design readable. They are also incomplete. Inside the cell, every arrow has an accounting problem. It may need energy, electrons, chemical groups, oxygen, reducing power, or helper molecules that the pathway drawing leaves in the background.

Cofactors on Fondsites

Cofactor and Redox Balancing: The Hidden Accounting of Synthetic Biology