Improvement opportunities for P450 biocatalytic applications in the pharmaceutical industry.

Enhancing P450 enzyme components with greater degrees of freedom is key to expanding biocatalytic opportunities in pharmaceutical applications.

• Why it matters: The pharmaceutical industry values selective oxygenation reactions for improving drug properties, but current methods face limitations like low yields and poor selectivity, necessitating better biocatalytic solutions.
• What they did: The review dissects P450 biocatalysts into seven components and explores recent advances to improve activity, selectivity, stability, and scalability, emphasizing a multidisciplinary approach.
• The result: Components with more degrees of freedom may enable more effective strategies, and the use of enzyme, cell, and process engineering tools can address current challenges to industrialize P450-based processes.