Use of hydrolases for the synthesis of cyclic amino acids

Abstract

The synthesis of several cyclic amino acids that have all the necessary structural features to make them ideal scaffolds for use in medicinal chemistry is described. A key step in each synthesis is the use of hydrolase enzymes to define a chiral centre. In order to elaborate these building blocks into more complex molecules, crystallization and asymmetric hydrogenation were used to define further stereocentres.