Tools for selective enzyme reaction steps in the synthesis of laboratory chemicals

The need for more selective reactions steps and the compatibility between process steps which follow on from each other has been a major driving force for organic synthesis. The synthesis of chiral compounds, metabolites, new chemical entities and natural products by a combination of chemical and enzyme reaction steps has become well established, due the existence of stable enzymes as selective catalysts which are inherently chiral by nature. Auxiliary tools such as suitable transfer reagents for reaching complete conversion, easy and robust reaction control as well as tools for straightforward workup and purification of the final product have been developed. Selective enzyme reaction steps in the area of hydrolyses, oxidation steps including hydroxylation and the Baeyer-Villiger oxidation, carbon-carbon bond formation and glycosylation reactions have compared favorably with existing methods of classical organic synthesis. The tools developed during optimization and scale-up of these enzyme reaction steps have the potential to shorten development time. The introduction of selective enzyme reactions into an entire synthetic process has resulted in harmonization of improvements in economic efficiency with resultant solutions to health, safety and environment problems. This will become even more important in industrial synthetic chemistry in the future, for convenient solutions to certain intractable synthetic problems and for expanding the repertoire of chemistry by modular biocatalysts. Efficient isolation procedures for the final product are essential to take full advantage of the biocatalytic conversion to obtain high product yields.