School of Chemistry final year PhD student Lisa Kennedy and Professor Dominic Campopiano have comment article published in Nature Chemistry, titled, ‘Bringing biocatalysis into teaching labs’. The timeline for the biocatalysis projects within the Chem4P course where students carry out a research project over 10 weeks The comment article describes integrating biocatalysis into the School of Chemistry’s hugely successful fourth-year undergraduate course at the University of Edinburgh, allowing students to conduct biocatalytic transformations relevant for organic synthesis. Chem4P is an innovative ten-week project in which fourth year undergraduate chemistry students get to carry out research in a chosen topic. For many undergraduate students, it is their first exposure to a research environment. This educational initiative reflects the growing importance of topics, such as biocatalysis, in modern chemistry and their relevance to industry and research. Chem4P is a dynamic course which allows students to be exposed to research labs and new types of chemical transformations that they may not come across in the classic chemistry laboratory curriculum. The success of the Chem4P programme is due to the hard work of the students and their PhD mentors, and this can be seen through the biocatalysis projects which have resulted in a research publication. Commenting on the comment article, final year PhD student Lisa Kennedy said; The Chem4P course allows students to gain practical laboratory experience in areas they might not otherwise encounter. As a PhD mentor, this emphasises how exposure to real research environments can inspire students. Lisa Kennedy Final year PhD student, Campopiano Group Professor Dominic Campopiano commented; We are really pleased that the Chem4P biocatalysis project continues to deliver both for the undergraduate students who did the work and Lisa, the PhD student who co-ordinated the outputs. The new commentary in the high impact journal Nature Chemistry highlights just how important it is to continue to train students in lab-based chemistry skills, as well as through lecture material. Prof. Dominic Campopiano Chair of Industrial Biocatalysis, School of Chemistry Read the full Nature comment article from the School of Chemistry.Campopiano Research Group Tags Postgraduate Research Teaching Undergraduate Publication date 20 Feb, 2026
