Enzymatic methods for the preparation of enantiopure malic and aspartic acid derivatives in organic solvents

Biocatalytic routes to anti-viral agents and their synthetic intermediates

An assessment of biocatalytic strategies for the synthesis of anti-viral agents, offering guidelines for the development of sustainable production methods for a future COVID-19 remedy.

Structural effects on chemo- and enantioselectivity of Candida antarctica lipase B - Resolution of β-amino esters

The Candida antarctica lipase B-catalyzed reactions of five β-amino esters with neat butyl butanoate and with 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl butanoate in diisopropyl ether were studied, as were the reactions of the same β-amino esters and their N-butanamides with neat butanol. The possibility for sequential resolution, where the amino and ester functions of the substrate both react with an achiral butanoate, became less likely with increasing size of the substrate from ethyl 3-aminobutanoate (1a) to pentanoate (1b) or larger. On the other hand, the alcoholyses of N-acylated β-amino esters successfully proceeded in butanol with E > 100. Gram-scale resolution of the N-butanoylated 1a was performed to demonstrate the usefulness of the method. Key words: lipase, interesterification, acylation, alcoholysis, resolution, β-amino esters.

Biocatalytic modification of natural products

Natural products are ideal training compounds for enzymatic catalysis. New transformations have become possible on a preparative scale thanks to molecular biology, which has made many new enzymes available. Additionally, new synthetic pathways have been developed to regenerate expensive cofactors in situ and to improve enzyme selectivity.