Biocatalysis in Organic Chemistry and Biotechnology: Past, Present, and Future

Enzymes as catalysts in synthetic organic chemistry gained importance in the latter half of the 20th century, but nevertheless suffered from two major limitations. First, many enzymes were not accessible in large enough quantities for practical applications. The advent of recombinant DNA technology changed this dramatically in the late 1970s. Second, many enzymes showed a narrow substrate scope, often poor stereo- and/or regioselectivity and/or insufficient stability under operating conditions. With the development of directed evolution beginning in the 1990s and continuing to the present day, all of these problems can be addressed and generally solved. The present Perspective focuses on these and other…

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  Philipps-Universität Marburg