The research described in this thesis focuses on the catalytic acylative kinetic resolution (KR) of aromatic secondary alcohols, using a planar-chiral 4-(dimethylamino)pyridine (DMAP) organocatalyst. In the first part of this thesis, the substrate scope of the above mentioned process was expanded to aromatic secondary alcohols that contain an extra functional group in the alkyl moiety, such as 1,2-azido alcohols, 2-hydroxy-2-aryl-ethylphosphonates and 2-hydroxy-2-aryl esters. Thus, the preparation of highly functionalized compounds in their enantiomerically pure form with excellent enantiomeric excess (up to 99% ee) was achieved. Furthermore, the synthetic applicability of this methodology was illustrated through the synthesis of two high value compounds, (R)-Pronethalol and (S)-3-hydroxy-N-methyl-3-phenylpropanamide, which is an immediate precursor of bioactive molecules such as (S)-Fluoxetine. The second part of this thesis deals with the mechanistic study of the acylative KR catalyzed by the planar-chiral DMAP derivative. Reaction Progress Kinetic Analysis methodology was used in the investigation of the reaction mechanism, probing that no notable product inhibition or decomposition of the catalyst occurs in the studied system. The reaction rate showed fractional order dependence on the concentration of both reactants. Furthermore, NMR spectroscopy was utilized to study the equilibrium between the different catalyst states, which explains the measured kinetics of the reaction.

This thesis describes the use of rational redesign to modify the properties of the enzyme Candida antarctica lipase B. Through carefully selected single-point mutations, we were able to introduce substrate-assisted catalysis and to alter the reaction specificity. Other single-point mutations afforded variants with greatly changed substrate selectivity and enantioselectivity. Mutation of the catalytic serine changed the hydrolase activity into an aldolase activity. The mutation decreased the activation energy for aldol addition by 4 kJ×mol-1, while the activation energy increased so much for hydrolysis that no hydrolysis activity could be detected. This mutant can catalyze aldol additions that no natural aldolases can catalyze. Mutation of the threonine in the oxyanion hole proved the great importance of its hydroxyl group in the transition-state stabilization. The lost transition-state stabilization was partly replaced through substrate-assisted catalysis with substrates carrying a hydroxyl group. The poor selectivity of the wild-type lipase for ethyl 2-hydroxypropanoate (E=1.6) was greatly improved in the mutant (E=22), since only one enantiomer could perform substrate-assisted catalysis. The redesign of the size of the stereospecificity pocket was very successful. Mutation of the tryptophan at the bottom of this pocket removed steric interactions with secondary alcohols that have to position a substituent larger than an ethyl in this pocket. This mutation increased the activity 5 500 times towards 5-nonanol and 130 000 times towards (S)-1-phenylethanol. The acceptance of such large substituents (butyl and phenyl) in the redesigned stereospecificity pocket increases the utility of lipases in biocatalysis. The improved activity with (S)-1-phenylethanol strongly contributed to the 8 300 000 times change in enantioselectivity towards 1-phenylethanol; example of such a large change was not found in the literature. The S-selectivity of the mutant is unique for lipases. Its enantioselectivity increases strongly with temperature reaching a useful S-selectivity (E=44) at 69 °C. Thermodynamics analysis of the enantioselectivity showed that the mutation in the stereospecificity pocket mainly changed the entropic term, while the enthalpic term was only slightly affected. This pinpoints the importance of entropy in enzyme catalysis and entropy should not be neglected in rational redesign.

Cette thèse présente la synthèse stéréosélective de plusieurs nouveaux acides aminés et alcools secondaires en utilisant la biocatalyse. Le travail est divisé en deux parties principales. La première partie est consacrée à la synthèse stéréosélective des alanines hétéroaryles en utilisant deux différents biocatalyseurs avec le même énantiopréférence, l'aminocatalyse I et la levure de boulanger (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). A l'aide de ces deux biocatalyseurs, les L-alanines ont été obtenus avec des excès énantiomériques et rendements élevé. La deuxième partie est consacrée à la synthèse des deux énantiomètres des alcools secondaires (hétéro)aryles en utilisant les lipases comme biocatalyseurs. Cette partie est divisée en deux sous-chapitres, un pour la synthèse stéréosélective de différents (thiazole-2-yl) - méthanols C-substitués et leurs dérivés acylés. Ces composés ont été obtenus par l'acylation enzymatique stéréosélective des alcools racémiques et par l'hydrolise enzymatique de leurs dérivés acylés. / This PhD thesis presents the stereoselecticve synthesis of several novel amino acids and secondary alcohols using biocatalysis. The work is divided in two main parts.The first part is dedicated to the stereoselective synthesis of novel heteroaryl alanines using two different biocatalysts with the same enantiopreference, the aminoacylase I and the baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Using these two biocatalysts the L-alanines were obtained with a high enantiometric excess and yields.The second part is dedicated to the syntehsis of the txo enantiomers of the novel (hetero)aryl secondary alcohols using lipases as the biocatalysts. This part is divided in two sub-chapters, one for the stereoselective synthesis of (S)- and (R)-1-aryl-3-chloro propanols and the other for the streoselective synthesis of different (thiazole-2-yl)-methanols C-substituted and their acylated derivatives. These compounds were obtained by the stereoselective enzymatic acylation of the racemic alcohols and the enzymatic hydrolisis ot their acylatic derivatives.

Combined thermodynamic/kinetic events amount to a kinetically controlled Dynamic Combinatorial Resolution (DCR) process, where the lability of themolecules/aggregates are used to generate dynamics, and the species experiencing the lowest activation energy is selected via kinetic process. Bothinter- and intramolecular processes can be performed using this concept,resulting in complete resolution and associated amplification of the selected species. When intermolecular processes are resolved using this method, an additional advantage is that only a catalytic amount of selector is required tocontrol the system.In this thesis, the Henry and Strecker reactions were developed as efficient C–C bond-forming routes to single and multi-level dynamic covalent systems.These methods efficiently provided a vast variety of substrates from smallnumbers of starting compounds. These dynamic systems, generated underthermodynamic control at mild conditions, were coupled in one-pot processes with kinetically controlled lipase-mediated transacylation. The enzym emediated resolution of the dynamic nitroaldol system led to enantiomericallypure β-nitroacetates in high yield. Furthermore, combination of multi-leveldynamic Strecker systems and lipase-mediated acylation resulted in theresolution of specific α-aminonitriles from the pool.In addition, the asymmetric synthesis of discrete β-nitroalkanol derivatives wassimply achieved, resulting in high yields and high enantiomeric purities through the direct one-pot procedure. Moreover, racemase type activity oflipase enzyme through N-substituted α-aminonitrile structure has been discovered. By use of control experiments together with molecular modeling,the mechanism of the racemization process has been established. Asymmetric synthesis of N-methyl α-aminonitriles was also performed through the dualfunction of lipase, resulting in high yield and good enantio selectivity. / <p>QC 20100818</p>