SBIR Phase I: Production of Enantiomerically-Pure Monomers

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目的目标是鉴定、分离或开发新的生物催化剂，用于生产立体特异性单体，这些单体可用于合成具有独特光学和机械性能的手性塑料。目前解决有机单体外消旋混合物的技术依赖于使用生物催化剂选择性地与所需或不需要的对映体反应。然后可以纯化所需的对映体并用于目标工艺。在这个项目中，新的生物催化剂将被识别并用于分解可用于合成塑料的对映体。所得到的塑料将首先进行测试，并用于制造控制光纤电缆上的光信号的设备，在评估和了解材料的热、机械和光学特性后，塑料的其他用途将变得明显。如果没有这样的开发工作，塑料的性能和用途就无法预测，并且需要相对大量的改进生物催化剂来生产足够数量的聚合物进行测试和评估。新的催化剂将克服现有的限制，如反应动力学差，酶不稳定，选择性不足，以及成本高，阻碍了生物催化剂在有机合成中的广泛接受。对映体纯化学品作为产品，以及作为合成药物和其他最终产品的中间体变得越来越重要。这项工作将导致酶的生产，可用于合成手性单体，随后可用于制造光纤工业的光学器件。同样，这些酶可能会在广泛的化学合成中合成对映纯中间体。

The goal of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is to identify, isolate or develop new biocatalysts for producing stereo-specific monomers that can be used to synthesize chiral plastics with unique optical and mechanical properties. Current technologies for resolving racemic mixtures of organic monomers rely on the use of a biocatalyst to selectively react with either a desired or undesired enantiomer. The desired enantiomer can then be purified and used in the targeted process. During this project, new biocatalysts will be identified and used to resolve enantiomers that can be used to synthesize plastics. The resulting plastics will initially be tested and used to construct devices for controlling optical signals on fiber optic cables, and other uses for the plastics will become apparent after the thermal, mechanical, and optical properties of the materials are evaluated and understood. Without such development work, the properties and utility of the plastics can not be predicted, and relatively large quantities of improved biocatalysts are needed to produce sufficient quantities of polymers for testing and evaluation. The new catalysts will overcome existing limitations such as poor reaction kinetics, enzyme instability, insufficient selectivity, and high costs which have hindered widespread acceptance of biocatalysts in organic synthesis. Enantiomerically pure chemicals are becoming increasingly important as products, and as intermediates for synthesizing pharmaceutical and other end products. This work will lead to the production of enzymes that can be utilized to synthesize chiral monomers that can subsequently be used for creating optical devises for the fiber optic industry. Likewise, the enzymes will likely find utility in synthesizing enantiopure intermediates for a wide range of chemical syntheses.