The formation of the amide bond through the amidation of carboxylic acids accounts for nearly 20% of all reactions performed in pharmaceutical synthetic chemistry laboratories. However. conventional methods of amide synthesis are still poorly atom efficient and can require forcing conditions and toxic reagents, hence there is a demand for biocatalytic alternatives. Athough lipases and acylases can be applied to amidation reactions, typically activated carboxylic acids and organic solvents are required, and substrate ranges are limited. In an alternative approach, we have enabled ATP-dependent amide bond synthetases related to the enzymes NovL, CouL and McbA for the synthesis of pharmaceutical-type amide bonds with excellent atom efficiency and a surprisingly broad substrate range.

Biocatalytic synthesis of amides using amide bond synthetases of the McbA family

256th National Meeting (2018)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.