The use of biocatalysis for industrial synthetic chemistry is on the verge of significant growth. Biocatalytic processes can now be carried out in organic solvents as well as aqueous environments, so that apolar organic compounds as well as water-soluble compounds can be modified selectively and efficiently with enzymes and biocatalytically active cells. As the use of biocatalysis for industrial chemical synthesis becomes easier, several chemical companies have begun to increase significantly the number and sophistication of the biocatalytic processes used in their synthesis operations.

Industrial biocatalysis today and tomorrow

The ability of amphiphilic block copolymers to self-assemble in selective solvents has been widely studied in academia and utilized for various commercial products. The self-assembled polymer vesicle is at the forefront of this nanotechnological revolution with seemingly endless possible uses, ranging from biomedical to nanometer-scale enzymatic reactors. This review is focused on the inherent advantages in using polymer vesicles over their small molecule lipid counterparts and the potential applications in biology for both drug delivery and synthetic cellular reactors.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/marc.200800713

Self-Assembled Block Copolymer Aggregates: From Micelles to Vesicles and their Biological Applications.

An overview of the wide range of nanoreactors that have been constructed from synthetic and biological building blocks using both covalent and noncovalent approaches is given. Focus is on self-assembled systems, varying in size from a few nanometers to tens of micrometers. The review is divided into several sections that cover the development of tailor-made nanoreactors, starting from small organic molecular containers expanding to large compartment-containing assemblies. First, the construction of capsules from low molecular weight compounds by means of covalent synthesis and self-assembly by highly directive and pre-designed interactions is discussed. Second, nanocapsules based on micellar and vesicular assemblies that are built up frow low molecular weight molecules are described. Finally, the construction of nanoreactors from macromolecular building blocks, as well as recent developments in the use of viruses as nanocontainers and reactors are outlined.

/pdf/self-assembled-nanoreactors-4el5gc5op7.pdf

Self-Assembled Nanoreactors

Chemical Synthesis of Natural Product Peptides: Coupling Methods for the Incorporation of Noncoded Amino Acids into Peptides.

New catalytic synthetic methods in organic chemistry that satisfy increasingly stringent environmental constraints are in great demand by the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. In addition, novel catalytic procedures are necessary to produce the emerging classes of organic compounds that are becoming the targets of molecular and biomedical research. Enzyme-catalysed chemical transformations are now widely recognized as practical alternatives to traditional (non-biological) organic synthesis, and as convenient solutions to certain intractable synthetic problems.

Enzymes for chemical synthesis

Determination de l'exces enantiomere par reaction d'α-alkyl α-aminoacides avec le chlorure de l'acide chloro-2 propionique

Synthesis of optically pure .alpha.-alkylated .alpha.-amino acids and a single-step method for enantiomeric excess determination

Giant amphiphiles by cofactor reconstitution.

https://www.cell.com/trends/biotechnology/pdf/0167-7799(88)90057-1.pdf

Lipases in the preparation of β-blockers

We report on biohybrid sur- factants, termed "giant amphiphiles", in which a protein or an enzyme acts as the polar head group and a synthetic polymer as the apolar tail. It is demon- strated that the modification of horse- radish peroxidase (HRP) and myoglo- bin (Mb) with an apolar polymer chain through the cofactor reconstitution method yields giant amphiphiles that form spherical aggregates (vesicles) in aqueous solution. Both HRP and Mb retain their original functionality when modified with a single polystyrene chain, but reconstitution has an effect on their activities. In the case of HRP the enzymatic activity decreases and for Mb the stability of the dioxygen myoglobin (oxy-Mb) complex is re- duced, which is probably the result of a disturbed binding of the heme in the apo-protein or a reduced access of the substrate to the active site of the enzyme or protein.

http://www.mate.tue.nl/mate/pdfs/7643.pdf

Aggregation Behavior of Giant Amphiphiles Prepared by Cofactor Reconstitution

A new synthesis route for long phosphate-methylated oligodeoxynucleotides is described, which were used as antisense inhibitors of the DNA replication. Phosphate-methylated oligomers hybridize more strongly with natural DNA than their natural analogues, due to the absence of electrostatic interstrand repulsions. Compared with phosphate-ethylated and methyl phosphonate systems, phosphate-methylated systems are preferable as antisense DNA, which was concluded from the high Tm values and sharp melting transitions of duplexes of phosphate-methylated and natural DNA. By using the Sanger dideoxy technique, it was shown that a complementary phosphate-methylated 18-mer can effectively and site-specifically block the DNA replication process at room temperature.

/pdf/regiospecific-inhibition-of-dna-duplication-by-antisense-f0x3mspwvy.pdf

E. M. Meijer

Papers

Synthesis of optically pure .alpha.-alkylated .alpha.-amino acids and a single-step method for enantiomeric excess determination

Giant amphiphiles by cofactor reconstitution.

Lipases in the preparation of β-blockers

Aggregation Behavior of Giant Amphiphiles Prepared by Cofactor Reconstitution

Regiospecific inhibition of DNA duplication by antisense phosphate-methylated oligodeoxynucleotides