Stereocontrolled Biocatalytic Reductions of Carbonyl Compounds

Title : Stereocontrolled Biocatalytic Reductions of Carbonyl Compounds

Abstract:

The contribution of biocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis is of great importance. Biocatalysts show high chemo-, regio- and stereo- selectivity and are active under mild reaction conditions. Asymmetric biocatalytic reduction of ketones is particularly important, since chiral alcohols are present in a wide spectrum of pharmaceuticals or can be used as chiral building blocks in the synthesis of numerous natural products and biologically relevant compounds.

Our continuing interest on stereoselective ketoreductase-catalyzed reductions of various di- and tricarbonyl compounds led us into the synthesis of optically active keto alcohols, diols, hydroxy esters, dihydroxy esters, valuable chiral synthons for the synthesis of high added value compounds.

Recently, we have focused in a new class of structurally interesting carbonyl compounds with substituents bearing different heteroatoms, which are very useful chiral synthons of a large variety of bioactive compounds. We will present here our latest results on the enzymatic asymmetric reduction of these compounds.

Biography:

Dr. Smonou studied Chemistry at the University of Athens, Greece; Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry (1985), National Research Institute and University of Athens, Greece; Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of California Los Angeles with Prof. M. E. Jung. She became Lecturer of Organic Chemistry in 1992 and is now Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, University of Crete, Greece. In 2006 she was Visiting Professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) with Prof. Frances Arnold (Nobel 2018). She has published more than 40 research articles in SCI(E) journals.