News & Events

When

Date - November 1, 2023
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

What

Literature Seminar
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
UNC Greensboro
Reddick Research Group

Title:

“Chemoenzymatic Biocatalysis: Whole Cells and Extremophiles”

Abstract:

Enzymes are useful in many facets of life – but one way that many don’t think about is their usefulness in organic synthesis. Enzymes can be used as biocatalysts in many different types of reactions and can help solve problems that have plagued researchers in the past when synthesizing challenging molecules.  Extremophilic enzymes or cells have many exciting applications in industrial processes.  In this talk, I will describe the development of two extremophilic enzymes that can be used to solve problems in the current industrial syntheses of Cymbalta and α-Lipoic acid.  As will be shown, both of these enzymes improved the problematic stereospecificity of the syntheses of these two compounds.