Enantioselective Enzyme Catalysis and Analysis on a Chip

Significance

An integrated catalysis/analysis-chip combining a microfluidic reactor and analysis unit on a single device was developed. It was applied for testing different enantioselective epoxide hydrolases obtained by directed evolution of enzymes in the biocatalyzed hydrolytic kinetic resolution of glycidyl phenyl ether. Using this device excellent enantioselectivity was reached (95% ee). The authors showed that the results using the catalysis/analysis-chip are comparable to those obtained by the traditional procedure (reaction on bench-scale format followed by analysis using chiral HPLC) in terms of conversion, enantioselectivity and selectivity factor.