Synthesis of Unnatural Amino Acids via Enzyme and Palladium Catalysis.

Abstract

Research into new methods for creating single-enantiomer pharmaceuticals has become increasingly important since the discovery of numerous side-effects caused by racemic drug interactions. One viable technique for the synthesis of such compounds is to induce asymmetry on an achiral compound via enzyme catalysis.In order to make more useful compounds, the enzyme reaction can be coupled with a palladium catalyzed substitution to produce highly functionalized compounds, including unnatural amino acids.