POMs can be combined with a wide variety of species to form (bio)organic-inorganic hybrids. We are developing synthetic strategies to create novel hybrid POM structures and to achieve their post-functionalization, which results in materials with interesting properties. Moreover, the formation of bio-inorganic and supramolecular assemblies by combining POMs with proteins and macromolecules is also being investigated. For example, Anderson-Evans polyoxometalate functionalized with biotin was used to induce the supramolecular assembly of proteins. These functional POM-based materials have many potential applications that are currently being explored by the group.

An in-depth understanding of the catalytic activity of polyoxometalates (POMs), towards biologically relevant reactions can be obtained by using a variety of substrates such as peptides, proteins, phosphoesters, and glucosides. POMs have been shown to exhibit remarkable reactivity towards amide, phosphoester and glycosidic bonds that are commonly found in nature. In particular, the ability of POMs to selectively interact with protein surfaces has been explored in our group to design them as novel catalysts for selective protein hydrolysis. So far we have developed a series of Zr, Hf, and Ce substituted POMs as artificial enzymes towards a variety of proteins differing in their size, structure, and charge. We also demonstrated that the catalytic activity of POMs can be “reversed” to switch from amide bond hydrolysis to amide bond formation. In addition to POMs, we recently demonstrated that other types of discrete MOCs can also act as efficient homogeneous or heterogenous catalysts for amide bond hydrolysis and formation.