Facilitating drug synthesis, development and detection: the enzymatic synthesis of beta-glucuronides

Drugs are metabolised to aid their excretion from the body. In areas like the development of new pharmaceuticals, sports drug testing and the screening of agricultural produce for hormone or pesticide residues, a detailed understanding of metabolism is needed and access to important metabolites is required so they can be tested. Unfortunately, current chemical and biochemical methods often fail to make these compounds reliably. This project will investigate a new approach using modified enzymes from bacteria for the syntheses of an important class of metabolites called glucuronides. The methods are general and will also be applied to the synthesis of other carbohydrate derivatives.