Reduction of ketones using whole cells

For example, consider one of the simplest reduction processes, namely the reduction of a ketone to a secondary alcohol. Of course, this can be accomplished chemically using sodium borohydride. The same transformation can be achieved using baker s yeast, and one advantage of using the biocatalyst often can be seen immediately (i.e. optically active forms of chiral alcohols can be obtained). The reason is simple The bio-reduction 

The ready availability of baker s yeast and the ease of operation of the whole-cell reduction are two of the attractive features of these processes. Many other organisms can be used to reduce ketones to secondary 

It is interesting to note that large quantities of 3(f )-hydroxyesters of type (3) can be obtained from a variety of micro-organisms which store the 

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