Bioorganic chemistry
Bioorganic chemistry deals with the interface between biochemistry and organic chemistry . It can also be understood as an interdisciplinary border area between chemistry, biology, pharmacy and medicine. She deals with molecules and classes of molecules from living things, including nucleic acids , proteins and sugars . While methods from molecular biology are often used in biochemistry , one focus of bioorganic chemistry is the application of known reactions and synthetic methods of organic chemistry to natural substances .
Preparative aspects: comparison with organochemical synthesis
The current development of bio-organic chemistry is increasingly competing with “classic organic” synthesis methods, in that organic starting compounds ( starting materials ) can be converted by biocatalysts . A distinction is made between whole-cell catalysis (“black box”) and molecular conversion with isolated enzymes in solution. The starting materials are referred to as substrates . The aspect of enantiomeric purity , which is becoming more and more important in industrial production today, can be achieved through targeted enzyme selection; the enantioselectivities of an enzymatic conversion are usually significantly higher than with non-catalyzed conversions. Disadvantages of the enzyme-catalyzed reactions are primarily in the process control itself, since the vast majority of enzymes lose a large part of their enzyme activity in hydrophobic solvents . So a solubilization of hydrophobic, organic substrates is necessary, which z. B. can be achieved by adding detergents or cyclodextrins . Another preparative aspect is the separation of the product from an often heterogeneous reaction mass, the most common method used here is simple extraction with an organic solvent.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Manfred T. Reetz : Biocatalysis in Organic Chemistry and Biotechnology: Past, Present, and Future , J. Am. Chem. Soc. 135 (2013) pp. 12480-12496.
Design of biocatalysts
Due to the possibilities of protein engineering and the related controlled further development of existing enzymes, there are great opportunities for process improvement in terms of enantiomeric purity, substrate variability, solvent tolerance, etc. The development of bio-organic chemistry is therefore integrated into the (controlled), evolutionary Development of biocatalysts and thus represents one of the possible applications in this area.