ABSTRACT
Dehydroge na se .......... .......... ............. ............... .......... ............. ............... .......... ......... 768
32.4. 1 The Concep t ..... ............... .......... ............. ............... .......... .......... ............... ... 768
32.4. 2 Proc esses with Isolated Enzy mes ..... .......... ............... .......... .......... ............... 770
32.4. 3 Who le-Cell Reduct ions .......... ............... .......... .......... ............... .......... ......... 775
32.5 Processes Based on Enzy me-Couple d Cofa ctor Regene ratio n us ing a Glucos e
Dehydroge na se .......... .......... ............. ............... .......... ............. ............... .......... ......... 777
32.5. 1 The Concep t ..... ............... .......... ............. ............... .......... .......... ............... ... 777
32.5. 2 Proc esses with Isolated Enzy mes ..... .......... ............... .......... .......... ............... 778
32.5. 3 Who le-Cell Reduct ions .......... ............... .......... .......... ............... .......... ......... 780
32.6 Processes Based on Cofactor Regene ration wi th Glucos e-6-Phosph ate
Dehydroge na se .......... .......... ............. ............... .......... ............. ............... .......... ......... 784
32.6. 1 The Concep t ..... ............... .......... ............. ............... .......... .......... ............... ... 784
32.6. 2 Isola ted Enzy mes .......... .......... ............... .......... .......... ............... .......... ......... 785
32.6. 3 Who le-Cell Reduct ions .......... ............... .......... .......... ............... .......... ......... 786
32.7 Summar y and Outloo k ..... ............... .......... .......... ............... .......... .......... ............... ... 786
References and Notes ......................................................................................................... 787
The en antioselect ive reduction of ke tones-accordi ng to Scheme 32.1-repres ents both a
straightforward and an atom-economical approach toward optically active alcohols, which
are important building blocks, for example, for the production of pharmaceuticals [1]. Often so-
called blockbusters, drugs that aremarketedwith sales in the billionUS$ range, are based on the
SCHEME 32.1
758 Biocatalysis in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Industries
use of a chiral alcohol moiet y. Thus, it is not su rprising that numero us efficie nt asymm etric
catal ytic routes based on different types of co ncepts-from the fields of kinetic resol ution [2]
and asymm etric syn thesis [3-5] —have been de veloped up to date. Without any doubt, out-
standi ng technol ogies in the latter field are the meta l-catal yzed asymmetr ic hydrogenat ion of
ketone s [6] and the borane reducti on [7]. Bot h techn ologies, which can be regarde d as landma rks
in indust rial asymmetr ic catalysi s in general , are applie d widely on techni cal scale , and certainly
repres ent the benchmark for any other type of alternati ve catal ytic red uction methodol ogy.
