Modification of only one out of several identical functional groups in a molecule is a fundamental challenge to organic chemists, for example the regioselective modification of polyhydroxy compounds.
Enzymatic catalysis has become a common tool routinely incorporated into many synthetic sequences. In our case, a further step consists in expanding the application of enzymes to the modification of complex molecular scaffolds common to many pharmaceutical leads isolated from nature. EntreChem applies regioselective enzymatic modifications of natural products to discover new natural product analogs with improved activity, stability and pharmacokinetic properties.
We also explore the implementation of cascade reactions including organo-, bio- and metal-catalyzed steps. Such strategy offers advantages over conventional chemical or catalysis step-wise reactions, and brings closer the possibility of emulating nature for the synthesis of complex natural products.