Biocatalysis Green Chemistry Meets White Biotechnology

Biocatalysis Green Chemistry Meets White Biotechnology 

If biocatalysis is so attractive, why was it not widely used in the past The answer is that only recent advances in biotechnology have made it possible. First, the availability of numerous whole-genome sequences has dramatically increased the number of potentially available enzymes. Second, in vitro evolution has enabled the manipulation of enzymes such that they exhibit the desired properties substrate specificity, activity, stability, and pH profile [42]. Third, recombinant DNA techniques have made it, in principle, possible to produce virtually any enzyme for a commercially acceptable price. Fourth, the cost-effective techniques that have now been developed for the immobilization of enzymes afford improved operational stability and enable their facile recovery and recycling [43]. 

The chemoenzymatic route afforded a dramatic improvement in process efficiency compared to the first-generation process. This was reflected in the E factor which decreased 7-fold, from 86 to 12, and the substantial reduction in organic solvent usage resulting from a largely aqueous reaction medium. 

The enzymes found in Nature are the result of aeons of cumulative natural selection, but they were not evolved to perform biotransformations of non-natural, pharmaceutical target molecules. In order to make them suited to these tasks they generally need to be re-evolved, but we don t have millions of years to do it. Fortunately, modern advances in biotechnology have made it possible to accomplish 

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