NADPH dehydrogenase can not only reduce but also oxidise by simply raising the pH, as researchers from Delft show in ChemCatChem.

Enzymes are biology’s organic chemists. No wonder that some chemists want to use these reaction machines to carry out chemical reactions. One such enzyme family that is already moving towards industrial applications is NADPH dehydrogenase, also known as Old Yellow Enzyme (OYE).

Traditionally, OYEs have been used for the reduction of conjugated C=C bonds. However, there were already indications that the reverse should also be possible, so the groups of Frank Hollmann and Caroline Paul decided to find out to what extent OYEs could be used for oxidation.