The team of Dunming ZHU has engineered a carbonyl reductase from Sporobolomyces salmonicolor to reduce several ß-amino ketones such as 3-(dimethylamino)-1-(2-thienyl)-propan-1-one, an important intermediate in antidepressant drugs, with over 90 % ee tot he R- or S-enantiomeric alcohols.
CAS news release, May 20, 2015
CAS Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology engineers carbonyl reductase for enantioselective reduction of ß-amino ketones