Lecture Abstract
Bioorganic synthetic chemistry represents a border crossing discipline at the cross-roads of chemistry and biology. The combination of biotechnological methods with modern catalysis enables strong synergies towards sustainable technologies. In addition, the molecular understanding of biological processes opens up novel approaches to affect biology per se. Several aspects of this trans-disciplinary field will be addressed in selected case studies within this lecture:
i) The combination of continuous flow-chemistry and biocatalysis offers a powerful tool to further exploit renewable resources towards sustainable platform chemicals and high-value products.
ii) Combination of metabolically unrelated biocatalysts provides the prospect of designing artificial metabolic mini-pathways; such cascade processes also overcome equilibrium limitations and circumvent troublesome intermediate work-up.
iii) The design of chemo-enzymatic cascades enables the combination of the best of both worlds in catalysis to exand the repertoire of single-operations transformations.
iii) Discovery of novel pharmacological tools opens the door towards a fundamental understanding of biological processes. Along this line, the application of light as stimulus has received substantial interest among the community of scientists at the chemistry & biology interface. Applications of “photopharmacology” will be outlined in the arena of the central nervous system (CNS). Announcement (Download)
Biography
Marko D. Mihovilovic graduated in technical chemistry at TU Wien in 1993, also receiving his doctorate from the same university in 1996, in the field of organic synthetic chemistry. Post-doc placements as an Erwin Schrödinger scholarship holder then followed at the University of New Brunswick (Canada) and the University of Florida (USA), in the fields of biocatalysis and molecular biology. Returning to TU Wien, he set up his own research group in 1999. He completed his habilitation in 2003 in bio-organic chemistry and was appointed Associate Professor in 2004. Marko Mihovilovic has been Head of the Institute for Applied Synthetic Chemistry at TU Wien since 2013 and was appointed as Full Professor for Bioorganic Synthetic Chemistry in February 2014.
Venue
Lecture Hall II (Hörsaal II)
Institute for Biochemistry
Felix-Hausdorff-Str.4
17489 Greifswald
Organizer
Anett Stolte, RTG 1947 Coordinator