Biotechnology in the Fine-Chemicals Industry: Cyclic Amino Acids by Enantioselective Biocatalysis

Enantiomerically pure cyclic amino acids are of increasing interest for the life-science industry. To meet this demand, Lonza has developed biotransformation processes with emphasis on the integration of chemistry and biocatalysis for the production of homochiral proline, piperidine-2-carboxylic acid and piperazine-2-carboxylic acid, and valuable derivatives of these compounds. The processes are designed for use on industrial scale; they have been optimised with respect to availability and cost of starting materials and biocatalyst, productivity of the process and a feasible product isolation procedure. Because of the extraordinarily high enantioselectivity of the enzymes, the (R)- and the (S)-enantiomers of the unnatural cyclic amino acids, which are both of commercial interest, can be produced in a single reaction. The examples presented demonstrate the benefit from interdisciplinary research for the production of fine chemicals by the combination of chemistry and biotechnology.