(81a) Engineering Biocatalytic Cascades for the Production of Pharmaceuticals

Modern protein engineering has been accelerated, allowing the field of chemistry to realize the true value of biocatalytic synthesis. The rapid assembly of complex, high value molecules for pharmaceutical applications can be facilitated using biocatalytic cascade reactions. The exquisite selectivity of enzymes, combined with their overlapping and compatible reaction conditions allow for multistep organic synthesis in a single pot. This in turn enables us to engineer unit operations at the molecular level, avoiding protection/deprotection steps and significant labor and overhead in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products.

This talk will describe how protein engineering has been accelerated to enable modern biocatalytic synthesis. It will also highlight multiple examples of biocatalytic cascade reactions currently under development at Merck.