Parceria: The project “Biotransformation of monoterpenes with high steric hindrance to obtain bioactive products” was developed in partnership with the University of Greifswald (Universität Greifswald), Germany, with orientation of Dr. Uwe T. Bornscheuer. The project was developed also with contribution of Dr. Dominique Böttcher (lab manager), Henrik Müller (PhD student), Simon Godehard (PhD student) and Henrik Terholsen (PhD student).

Destaques: The search for natural products as pharmacological agents is crescent and highly important, due to the increase in human resistance to drugs commonly used in clinical. Among the natural products with potential pharmacological properties are the monoterpenes and it is estimated that the increase in lipophilicity of monoterpenes caused by their esterification, can generate an increase in the migration at the cell membrane, caused by changes in permeability and, consequently, greater efficiency in the inhibition of cell growth.
With the goal of increase the pharmacological activity of monoterpenes, this project had as objective the biocatalytic transformation of monoterpenes to obtain new natural and bioactive substances.
For this, a library of enzymes (wild type and mutants) were tested, in different assays, at different conditions. From the experiments performed was possible to produce naturally new products to be tested as antibacterial, antinociceptive, and antitumor agents.
The results obtained also opened a door to the future application of enzymes capable of performing acylation in water, showing the relevance of this research to the field of biocatalysis.

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