Biocatalysis has become an empowering technology in modern organic synthesis. The use of enzymes for chemical transformations often grants unparalleled chemo-, regio- and stereoselectivity and enables transformations that would be unachievable using conventional chemical methods. In this regard and inspired by nature, recent years have witnessed a growing interest in the design of multi-step enzyme cascade reactions by combining several enzyme-catalyzed steps in one reactor (one pot) without intermediate purification steps、
Microfluidic devices provide an ideal reaction vessel for multi-step biocatalytic cascades in flow, as reactions in microsystems can be effectively compartmentalized, reaction and separation steps can be independently controlled, and throughput can be increased via parallelization. Additional advantages of microfluidics such as much higher surface-area-to-volume ratios, and tremendously increased mass and heat transfer rates. To perform biocatalytic cascades in microfluidic systems, individual enzyme catalysts are commonly immobilized in either separate but connected microsystems or neighboring compartments on the same microsystem. Hence, reaction steps of a cascade are spatially separated, but still connected in flow.
Project period: 09/2022 - 09/2025
Funding organization: DFG
Responsible person: Lanting Xiang
