Enzyme engineering for biocatalysis

Contemporary Biocatalysis heavily relies on enzyme engineering as natural enzymes frequently lack the requisite attributes for effective organic synthesis. The inherent limitations in stability, catalytic activity, and selectivity of wild-type enzymes often hinder their suitability for chemical synthesis. Over the past 25 years, there has...

Structure-Based Redesign of a Methanol Oxidase into an “Aryl Alcohol Oxidase” for Enzymatic Synthesis of Aromatic Flavor Compounds

Alcohol oxidases (AOxs) catalyze the aerobic oxidation of alcohols to the corresponding carbonyl products (aldehydes or ketones), producing only H₂O₂ as the byproduct. The majority of known AOxs, however, have a strong preference for small, primary alcohols, limiting their broad applicability, e.g., in the food industry....

A Biocatalytic Platform for the Synthesis of Enantiopure Propargylic Alcohols and Amines

Propargylic alcohols and amines are versatile building blocks in organic synthesis. We demonstrate a straightforward enzymatic cascade to synthesize enantiomerically pure propargylic alcohols and amines from readily available racemic starting materials. In the first step, the peroxygenase from Agrocybe aegerita converted the racemic...

Water-Soluble Anthraquinone Photocatalysts Enable Methanol-Driven Enzymatic Halogenation and Hydroxylation Reactions

Peroxyzymes simply use H2O2 as a cosubstrate to oxidize a broad range of inert C-H bonds. The lability of many peroxyzymes against H2O2 can be addressed by a controlled supply of H2O2, ideally in situ. Here, we report a simple, robust, and water-soluble anthraquinone sulfonate (SAS) as a promising organophotocatalyst to drive both...