Abstract

Successes and Challenges of Biocatalysis in Continuous Flow

Francesca Paradisi, Professor of Pharmaceutical and Bioorganic Chemistry, University of Bern

Flow chemistry has allowed many industrial processes to be carried out in continuous mode, with higher efficiency and automation. Biocatalysis has caught up with this technique and several examples have been reported in the literature in the last decade. However, the complexity of multi-enzymatic processes in the absence of cellular regulation, has limited their applications to some chemo-enzymatic synthesis, and just a few fully enzymatic processes have been implemented. Among others, the cofactor requirements of redox enzymes, the stability of the biocatalyst, and efficiency of the biotransformations, must be thoroughly optimised. Here an overview of the progress in our lab will be presented, including insights and hurdles which are sometimes unexpected when a reaction is moved from batch to flow.