Microbial and Enzymatic enantioselective Transformation of Nitriles

The group is concerned in the chemo- and stereoselective enzymatic/microbial transformation of a broad range of structurally diverse nitriles to amides and carboxylic acids. The current research activities are focussed on the enantioselective hydrolysis of amino nitriles to non natural amino acids by means of several microbial strains and purified nitrilases. Related to that, there is a strong interest to exploit synthetic strategies to the relevant nitrile precursors for the biotransformations.