2016, Correro, Maria Rita, Moridi, Negar, Schützinger, Hansjörg, Sykora, Sabine, Ammann, Erik, Peters, E. Henrik, Dudal, Yves, Corvini, Philippe, Shahgaldian, Patrick

The fragile nature of most enzymes is a major hindrance to their use in industrial processes. Herein, we describe a synthetic chem. strategy to produce hybrid org.​/inorg. nanobiocatalysts; it exploits the self-​assembly of silane building blocks at the surface of enzymes to grow an organosilica layer, of controlled thickness, that fully shields the enzyme. Remarkably, the enzyme triggers a rearrangement of this organosilica layer into a significantly soft structure. We demonstrate that this change in stiffness correlates with the biocatalytic turnover rate, and that the organosilica layer shields the enzyme in a soft environment with a markedly enhanced resistance to denaturing stresses.