Design and Development of Chemoenzymatic Cascades

A broad range of tools have been developed enabling chemoenzymatic one-pot processes, in particular under combination of chemo- and bio-catalysis. A key issue for developing such processes is to gain initially insight into the compatibility of the reaction steps being considered to be combined. It is noteworthy that for many chemoenzymatic reactions with an initial chemocatalytic step and a subsequent biotransformation, a high compatibility of the biocatalyst with the chemocatalyst or components from the chemocatalytic step has been found. Such a compatibility then enables to conduct both reactions in a one-pot fashion, either in a sequential one-pot or tandem-type one-pot mode. However, also when it turned out that the two transformations planned to be combined are not compatible with each other, a range of solutions have been developed to realize one-pot or one-pot like processes. A favored method is based on compartmentalization, and a range of concepts have been developed in this field, which enable the combination of chemo- and bio-catalytic reactions without the need to isolate and purify intermediates. This review focuses on an overview of such tools, which now exists for the design and optimization of chemoenzymatic one-pot processes.