in 2007, followed by postdoctoral studies at York University (UK) and Greifswald University (Germany). In 2010, she transitionedto industry applying and developing biocatalytic technologies at Novacta in the UK, prior to joining Chemical Process Development at GSK, with responsibility for the development and implementation of new biocatalytic technologyi nboth pre-and post-commercialization routes. Since Dec. 2016, Radka is leading the Bioreactions group in GDC at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel, Switzerland. Jeffrey Moore obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineeringf rom the California Institute of Technology in 1996 as Frances Arnold's first Directed Evolution graduate student. His foundational work led to an evolved p-nitrobenzyl esterase and the Lonza Centenary Prize (1997). In 1996, he joined the Biocatalysis Group of Merck & Co.in Rahway NJ, spending two decades inventing new enzymes and new enzymatic processes. In 2018, he transitionedtothe Merck Protein EngineeringG roup responsible for evolving enzymes for the discovery,d evelopmenta nd commercials cale manufacture of medicines. He has been awarded aUS Presidential Green Chemistry Award (2010), the BioCat2012 Award (2012) and the Thomas Edison Inventorship Award (2014). Kai Baldenius studied chemistry in Hamburg and Southampton. He received his PhD for research in asymmetric organometallic catalysis, supervised by H. tom Dieck and H. B. Kagan. After his postdoc on natural product synthesis with K. C. Nicolaou at the Scripps Research Institute he joined BASF in 1993. Kai served BASF in various functions (R&D, production, marketing, sales) before he took the lead of BASF'sbiocatalysis research for almost ad efcade. He left BASF to become afree-lancing consultanti n2019 and in 2020 he has founded Baldenius Biotech Consulting. Uwe T. Bornscheuer studied chemistry and received his PhD in 1993 at Hannover University followed by apostdoc at Nagoya University (Japan). In 1998, he completed his Habilitation at Stuttgart University about the use of lipases and esterasesi n organic synthesis. He has been Professor at the Institute of Biochemistry at Greifswald University since 1999. Beside other awards, he received in 2008 the BioCat2008 Award. He was just recognized as "Chemistry Europe Fellow". His current research interest focuses on the discovery and engineering of enzymes from various classes for applications in organic synthesis, lipid modification, degradation of plastics or complex marine polysaccharides.

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Glycosynthases are promising enzyme catalysts for glycoside synthesis. Derived from glycoside hydrolases by mechanistic repurposing of their active site, glycosynthases utilize suitably activated glycosyl donors for glycosylation, yet they are unable to hydrolyze the products thus formed. Although primed for synthetic application by their design, glycosynthases have yet to see actual use in carbohydrate production. To challenge limitations on glycosynthase applicability perceived from the process chemistry point of view, here we developed a glycosynthase (D746E variant) from Bifidobacterium bifidum β-N-acetylhexosaminidase that is highly active synthetically (≥100 μmol min–1 mg–1) and fully chemo- and regioselective when using N-acetyl-d-glucosamine 1,2-oxazoline for β-1,3-glycosylation of lactose. We thus established a chemoenzymatic process technology for production of lacto-N-triose II, a core structural unit of human milk oligosaccharides. Using equivalent amounts of oxazoline (prepared chemically in 40% yield from N-acetyl-d-glucosamine) and lactose, we obtained lacto-N-triose II (515 mM; 281 mg mL–1; ∼90% yield; ≤1 h reaction time) immediately recoverable from the reaction in 85% purity. These metrics of process efficiency reveal the prodigious potential of the glycosynthase for trisaccharide production.

Continuous low-level supply or in situ generation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is essential for the stability of unspecific peroxygenases, which are deemed ideal biocatalysts for the selective activation of C–H bonds. To envisage potential large scale applications of combined catalytic systems the reactions need to be simple, efficient and produce minimal by-products. We show that gold-palladium nanoparticles supported on TiO2 or carbon have sufficient activity at ambient temperature and pressure to generate H2O2 from H2 and O2 and supply the oxidant to the engineered unspecific heme-thiolate peroxygenase PaDa-I. This tandem catalyst combination facilitates efficient oxidation of a range of C-H bonds to hydroxylated products in one reaction vessel with only water as a by-product under conditions that could be easily scaled.