Prospects for the increased application of biocatalysts in organic transformations

Predicting the future use of biocatalysts for the transformation of organic compounds--both natural substrates and other compounds--needs to take many factors into account. To date, relatively few biotransformations have been developed to the industrial scale, primarily because there has been little economic incentive to replace existing successful processes with biocatalysts, with their inherent problems of instability, lack of selectivity and narrow operational range. However, advances that improve biocatalyst performance, coupled with the increasing emphasis on 'chirotechnology', are driving the development of biocatalysis as a complementary, if not a rival technology to existing chemical approaches.