Biocatalytic Oxidation Reactions: A Chemist's Perspective

Oxidation chemistry using enzymes is approaching maturity and practical applicability in organic synthesis. Oxidoreductases (enzymes catalysing redox reactions) enable chemists to perform highly selective and efficient transformations ranging from simple alcohol oxidations to stereoselective halogenations of non‐activated C−H bonds. For many of...

Combining Photo-Organo Redox- and Enzyme Catalysis Facilitates Asymmetric C-H Bond Functionalization

In this study, we combined photo-organo redox catalysis and biocatalysis to achieve asymmetric C–H bond functionalization of simple alkane starting materials. The photo-organo catalyst anthraquinone sulfate (SAS) was employed to oxyfunctionalise alkanes to aldehydes and ketones. We coupled this light-driven reaction with asymmetric enzymatic...

Alcohol Dehydrogenases Catalyze the Reduction of Thioesters

Alcohol dehydrogenases are well-established catalysts for various reduction reactions. However, the reduction of carboxylic acid derivatives has not yet been reported with these enzymes. In this contribution, we demonstrated that carboxylic acid thioesters could be readily reduced by a range of alcohol dehydrogenases, albeit at significantly...

Towards environmentally acceptable synthesis of chiral α-hydroxy ketones via oxidase-lyase cascades

The one-pot multistep enzymatic oxidation of aliphatic and benzylic alcohols to the corresponding aldehydes combined with their subsequent carboligation to chiral α-hydroxy ketones has been exemplarily evaluated in terms of being a “green” biocatalytic approach. Besides the potential to start from bio-derived alcohols, this concept avoids the...

Photobiocatalytic alcohol oxidation using LED light sources

The photocatalytic oxidation of NADH using a flavin photocatalyst and a simple blue LED light source is reported. This in situ NAD+ regeneration system can be used to promote biocatalytic, enantioselective oxidation reactions. Compared to the traditional use of white light bulbs this method enables very significant reductions in energy...