Cytochrome P450-mediated biotransformation of noscapine

Abstract

Cytochrome P450 enzymes are promising biocatalysts for the pharmaceutical industry due to their ability to catalyse selective oxidations of drug-like substrates that are often difficult to achieve with synthetic organic chemistry. This enzyme family is, however, currently underrepresented in industrial biocatalysis due to issues with enzyme stability and cofactor requirements, as well as the poor aqueous solubility of many cytochrome P450 substrates. In this thesis, cytochrome P450-mediated biotransformation of the opium poppy alkaloid noscapine was used as a model reaction for the development and optimisation of a biotransformation process using bacterial cells. The aims of this thesis w..