Beta-Lactamase, Antibody Enzymes, and Sequence Space

[Mercer (John Mercer)]

@Agauger

Their clinical utility is completely irrelevant to the point we’re discussing.

This remark baffles me. Clinical utility? Their utility as enzymes has everything to do with what we are discussing. Do they or are they capable of making good Beta lactamase enzymes. The answer appears to be no.

I am puzzled, because that stands in stark contrast to what you wrote a while ago:

@Agauger

Doug [Axe] did not want to measure where buffering was taking place, neither did he want to measure during exponential decline. He wanted to measure at the threshold of enzyme activity, because he was trying to quantify the number of changes to go from no function to function. This is the transition boundary that is of interest to evolutionary biologists.

So are you now saying that catalytic antibodies do not fit this interest in the threshold of enzyme activity, or that you do not share Doug’s interest in the boundary?