Atropisomeric ligands have found numerous powerful applications in catalysis, [1] and the atropisomeric biaryl bisphosphine binap played an important role in the award of a Nobel Prize to Noyori in 2001.[2] Enantiomerically pure atropisomers commonly employed as chiral ligands are generally made by resolution: there are still relatively few effective methods for direct asymmetric coupling to form single enantiomers. [3] Kinetic resolution [4] and dynamic resolution [5] under kinetic [5a] or thermodynamic [5b] control are particularly appealing given the possibility offered by atropisomerism for thermal racemization of the less reactive enantiomer. The use of desymmetrization for the synthesis of single atropisomers is rare. [6] Following the early example of enantioselective lithiation reported by Raston and co-workers, [6b] the research groups of Hayashi [6c] and Harada [6d] also reported chemical methods for desymmetrizing biphenyl compounds. A single example of the enzymatic desymmetrization of a biaryl compound with a lipase was reported by Matsumoto et al.[6e]Herein, we report two novel and complementary biocatalytic approaches to the enantioselective synthesis of atropisomers by the desymmetrization of appropriate achiral substrates containing a pair of enantiotopic functional groups. The atropisomer in question is the diaryl ether 2, which may be formed either by enantioselective oxidation of the symmetrical diol 1 or by the corresponding reduction of the symmetrical dialdehyde 3 (Scheme 1). The enzymes we employed for these transformations were 1) a variant of galactose oxidase (GOase) which had been previously evolved to accept chiral benzylic alcohols as substrates with high enantioselectivity (1!2) [7] and 2) a family of ketoreductases that are known to possess good activity and enantioselectivity for the asymmetric reduction of benzylic ketones (3!2). [8] Atropisomeric diaryl ethers [9] form part of the structure of vancomycin [10] and are promising scaffolds for the construction for new chiral ligands.[11] Dialdehyde 3 and diol 1 were made by our published route. [9] In an initial screen, we attempted enantioselective acetylation by incubating diol 1 with Candida antarctica lipase B and vinyl acetate. Slow acylation of 1 was observed with approximately 50 % conversion after 24 h to the monoacetate 4 and modest enantioselectivity (60 % ee). In contrast, when diol 1 was incubated with the previously reported M 3-5 variant of GOase, [7] rapid oxidation to the monoaldehyde (P)-2 resulted in 80 % conversion after 24 h to material with 94 % ee.During the oxidation of 1 to 2, rapid formation of the product (P)-2 with approximately 88 % ee (see below for assignment of the absolute configuration) was observed after 1 h, followed by a slower increase in enantiomeric purity to a maximum ee value of 94 % (Figure 1). This increase in the ee value, along with the formation of the dialdehyde 3 (14 % after 24 h), suggested that the minor enantiomer (M)-2 produced in the enantioselective oxidation of 1 was ...