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  • Review Article
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Opportunities and challenges for combining chemo- and biocatalysis

Nature Catalysis volume 1, pages 12–22 (2018)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 07 March 2018

This article has been updated

Abstract

The past decade has seen a substantial increase in successful examples of the combination of chemo- and biocatalysis for multistep syntheses. This is driven by obvious advantages such as higher yields, decreased costs, environmental benefits and high selectivity. On the downside, efforts must be undertaken to combine the divergent reaction conditions, reagent tolerance and solvent systems of these ‘different worlds of catalysis’. Owing to progress in enzyme discovery and engineering, as well as in the development of milder and more compatible conditions for operating with various chemocatalysts, many historical limitations can already be overcome. This Review highlights the opportunities available in the chemical space of combined syntheses using prominent examples, but also discusses the current challenges and emerging solutions, keeping in mind the fast progress in transition metal-, organo-, photo-, electro-, hetero- and biocatalysis.

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Fig. 1: Definition of different terms for one-pot cascade reactions used in this Review.
Fig. 2: Selected examples of combinations of transition metal- and enzyme-catalysed reactions.
Fig. 3: Selected examples of combinations of organo- and biocatalytic reactions.
Fig. 4: Selected example for the combination of a photo-/electrochemical and biocatalytic reaction.
Fig. 5: Reaction engineering strategies to cope with catalyst incompatibilities.

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Change history

  • 07 March 2018

    In this Review Article originally published, the ORCID number for the author Radka Snajdrova was incorrect; it should have been 0000-0002-4809-1066. This has now been corrected in all versions of the Review Article.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to R. J. Carroll and M. Höhne for critical reading of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Applied Synthetic Chemistry, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria

    Florian Rudroff & Marko D. Mihovilovic

  2. Organic Chemistry I, Faculty of Chemistry, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany

    Harald Gröger

  3. Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland

    Radka Snajdrova

  4. Process Chemistry and Catalysis, Biocatalysis, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Basel, Switzerland

    Hans Iding

  5. Institute of Biochemistry, Department of Biotechnology and Enzyme Catalysis, Greifswald University, Greifswald, Germany

    Uwe T. Bornscheuer

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  1. Florian Rudroff
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  2. Marko D. Mihovilovic
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  3. Harald Gröger
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  4. Radka Snajdrova
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  5. Hans Iding
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  6. Uwe T. Bornscheuer
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Correspondence to Uwe T. Bornscheuer.

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R.S. is an employee of Novartis Pharma AG and H.I. is an employee of F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

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A correction to this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-018-0042-4.

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Rudroff, F., Mihovilovic, M.D., Gröger, H. et al. Opportunities and challenges for combining chemo- and biocatalysis. Nat Catal 1, 12–22 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-017-0010-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-017-0010-4

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