A Predictive Approach for the Optical Control of Carbonic Anhydrase II Activity.

Optogenetics and photopharmacology are powerful approaches to investigating biochemical systems. While the former is based on genetically encoded photoreceptors that utilize abundant chromophores, the latter relies on synthetic photoswitches that are either freely diffusible or covalently attached to specific bioconjugation sites, which are often native or engineered cysteines. The identification of suitable cysteine sites and appropriate linkers for attachment is generally a lengthy and cumbersome process.

Photoswitchable thioureas for the external manipulation of catalytic activity.

A series of azobenzene-based thiourea catalysts have been developed with the aim of achieving control over the catalytic activity by the use of light. The conceptual design of these systems relies on the inactivation by means of intramolecular hydrogen bonding, only likely to take place in one of their isomeric forms. After fine structure modulation of the catalyst a substantial difference in activity has been observed between the irradiated and the nonirradiated reaction.

Enantioselective continuous-flow production of 3-indolylmethanamines mediated by an immobilized phosphoric acid catalyst.

A polystyrene-supported 1,1'-bi-2-naphthol derived phosphoric acid has been synthesized and applied in the enantioselective Friedel-Crafts reaction of indoles and sulfonylimines. The immobilized catalyst was highly active and selective, and gave rise to a broad range of 3-indolylmethanamines (19 examples) in high yields and excellent enantioselectivities (up to 98 % enantiomeric excess) after short reaction times under very convenient reaction conditions (RT in dichloromethane). Moreover, repeated recycling (14 cycles) was possible with no substantial loss in catalytic performance and the system could be adapted to a continuous-flow operation (6 h).

Polystyrene-supported (2S)-(-)-3-exo-piperazinoisoborneol: an efficient catalyst for the batch and continuous flow production of enantiopure alcohols.

A polystyrene-supported analog (PS-PIB) of 3-exo-morpholinoisoborneol (MIB), designed for increased chemical stability, has been synthesized and used as a ligand in the asymmetric alkylation of aldehydes with Et(2)Zn. The supported ligand turned out to be highly active and enantioselective for a broad scope of substrates (92-99% ee), allowing repeated recycling. A single-pass, continuous flow process implemented with PS-PIB shows only a marginal decrease in conversion after 30 h of operation.