ABSTRACT
Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. 657
References .......................................................................................................................... 657
In the last decade, biocatalysis has been firmly established as a powerful synthetic tool. While
the majority of synthetic targets can be attained by purely chemical means, chemistry alone
often does not provide the most elegant solutions. Numerous examples of biosynthetic
approaches incorporating chemistry and biology have resulted in a significant simplification
of synthetic strategies to generate complex chiral molecules including drugs and drug
intermediates. Indeed, the number of biocatalytic approaches to chiral intermediates has
grown significantly in recent years in support of a continuously expanding market for single
enantiomer drugs [1,2]. Despite numerous examples of integrated biochemical approaches
reported in the literature, some argue that the area of biocatalysis has not fulfilled earlier
expectations based on the limited number of commercial biological processes. However, this
position overlooks the fact that, while large-scale commercial bioprocesses garner most of the
attention, they represent only a fraction of the overall contribution of biocatalysis to drug
discovery and development.
