Engineering biocatalytic systems in organic media with low water content

The use of organic media in biocatalysis stems from the fact that in many cases biocatalytic processes can hardly be conducted (if at all) in aqueous solutions because of extremely low solubilities of substrates and/or unfavorable shift of the reaction equilibrium in water. The growing interest in this biotechnological area that has sprung up over the past few years has resulted in various approaches to enzyme stabilization against organic solvents. Thus, the main goal of the present review is to formulate a comprehensive classification of numerous successful nonaqueous biocatalytic systems based on a few fundamental principles. Typical examples are considered, along with the advantages and drawbacks inherent in each of the approaches discussed.