Biocatalytic alkene isomerization for asymmetric synthesis

Organic molecules are at the core of our modern lives and constitute the building blocks of a range of essential goods, from pharmaceuticals to detergents, from fragrances to dyes and food additives. One of the most important features of these molecules that are made essentially of carbon atoms is their three-dimensional structure, which dictates their chemical and biological properties. In order to design and synthesize molecules, chemists must take into account the spatial arrangement between all their constitutive atoms. Targeted synthetic methods are therefore necessary in order to reach the exact shape of a desired compound and avoid the generation of by-products or molecules with the undesired structure. One approach relies on the use of natural catalysts called enzymes, which can increase the speed of a chemical transformation and also accommodate a molecule to transform it with high precision into a given product with high efficiency. These biocatalysts present the advantage of working under mild, clean, and nontoxic conditions, usually in water, and are therefore highly demanded to contribute to transforming our chemical industry into a more environmentally friendly technology. In this project, we are investigating specific enzymes beyond their natural catalytic activity. We aim at the development of a biocatalytic platform that can be applied to a broad range of compounds for a particular chemical transformation called isomerization, which can be described as the change of the molecular shape of a given compound to yield a product with increased value and added properties. Such enzymes remain underexploited in the context of chemical synthesis, especially for the isomerization of C-C double bonds. We plan to combine this reaction with a second enzymatic step. The ultimate goal is to design an enzymatic cascade reaction that can outperform current chemical methods. We thrive to develop a sustainable access to important molecules with highly attractive properties and broad applications, such as for fragrances and flavors, in line with growing environmental concern and awareness for sustainable technologies.