Photocatalysis to promote cell-free biocatalytic reactions

Cofactors assist enzymes to catalyze reactions and are indispensable and ubiquitous in nature, playing a central role in metabolic pathways. In biocatalysis, common redox cofactors such as nicotinamide, flavin and heme can be activated by light or synthetized to vary redox potentials, leading to different types of reactions for the formation...

Horse Liver Alcohol Dehydrogenase-Catalyzed Oxidative Lactamization of Amino Alcohols

A direct synthesis of lactams (5-, 6-, and 7-membered) starting from amino-alcohols in a bienzymatic cascade is reported. Horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase together with the NADH oxidase from Streptococcus mutans were applied for the oxidative lactamization of various amino alcohols. Crucial parameters for the efficiency of this cascade...

The Oxygen Dilemma: A Severe Challenge for the Application of Monooxygenases?

Monooxygenases are promising catalysts because they in principle enable the organic chemist to perform highly selective oxyfunctionalisation reactions that are otherwise difficult to achieve. For this, monooxygenases require reducing equivalents, to allow reductive activation of molecular oxygen at the enzymes' active sites. However, these...