A novel thymidine phosphorylase from the halotolerant H. elongata has been characterized, immobilized on microbeads, and integrated into a packed-bed reactor for continuous flow biocatalysis.
With this biocatalyst, four halogenated nucleoside analogues with anticancer and antiviral properties were synthesized achieving up to 90% conversion at the 10 mM scale with 30 min residence time.

This work was carried out in the group of Prof. Francesca Paradisi.

References:

• A. I. Benítez-Mateos, C. Klein, D. Roura Padrosa, F. Paradisi;
  "A novel thymidine phosphorylase to synthesize (halogenated) anticancer and antiviral nucleoside drugs in continuous flow"
  Catal. Sci. Technol., 2022, 12(20), 6231-6238; doi:10.1039/D2CY00751G.