(26a) Developing Improved Enzymes for Industrial Biocatalysis

Pharmaceutical agents typically contain multiple functional groups with a few stereocenters that must be synthesized in high chemical purity. The field of Biocatalysis uses enzymes to perform highly selective chemical transformations. These enzymes are mainly evolved around a specific metabolic or chemical transformation and in many cases screening panels of these enzymes results in just enough activity for small-scale delivery and proof-of-concept experiment, not large-scale manufacturing. To overcome this challenge, we utilize the power of high-throughput rapid screening technologies and machine-learning algorithms during reaction and protein engineering to develop an optimized, highly selective biochemical transformation that enables large-scale manufacturing. Recent success from our laboratories will be discussed.