Enzyme Catalysed Organic Reactions - General Biocatalysis

Enzymes are nature's catalysts. They are able to effect highly selective reactions with very high conversion rates. However, it is possible to utilize them for chemical conversion without precedence in nature. In these cases the selectivities can still be obtained while the reactions now proceed under mild and environmentally friendly conditions. Our main research interests comprise hydrolytic reactions using lipases, esterases and proteases as well as enzyme catalyzed cyanohydrin syntheses using hydroxynitrile lyases, especially for the preparation of enantiomerically pure synthetic building blocks.