Asymmetric and Selective Biocatalysis

Magnetic MOF microreactors for recyclable size-selective biocatalysis.

In this contribution we report a synthetic strategy for the encapsulation of functional biomolecules within MOF-based microcapsules. We employ an agarose hydrogel droplet Pickering-stabilised by UiO-66 and magnetite nanoparticles as a template around which to deposit a hierarchically structured ZIF-8 shell. The resulting microcapsules are robust, highly microporous and readily attracted to a ma...

Selective Asymmetric Interventions

Quantum Chemistry as a Tool in Asymmetric Biocatalysis: Limonene Epoxide Hydrolase Test Case**

Cluster model: Large active-site models (see figure) are used to investigate the selectivity of limonene epoxide hydrolase, both the wild type and mutants optimized through directed evolution. Good agreement is found between theory and the experimental data, thus demonstrating that the quantum chemical cluster approach can be a powerful tool in the field of asymmetric biocatalysis.

Whole organism biocatalysis.

The use of biocatalysts for the industrial synthesis of chemicals has been attracting much attention as an environment-friendly synthetic method. Microbial cells play a leading role in 'chemo-enzymatic synthesis' because of their great diversity. Several microbes with unique catalytic abilities have been found through intensive screening and put to practical use. Besides, advanced molecular bio...

Miniaturization in Biocatalysis

The use of biocatalysts for the production of both consumer goods and building blocks for chemical synthesis is consistently gaining relevance. A significant contribution for recent advances towards further implementation of enzymes and whole cells is related to the developments in miniature reactor technology and insights into flow behavior. Due to the high level of parallelization and reduced...