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A part of Simon's PhD thesis was just published in ChemCatChem.

In this article we describe the biochemical characterisation of an unusual O-methyltransferase found in a natural product biosynthetic pathway of a soil bacterium. This enzyme showed an interesting selectivity in the O-methylation of aryl-substituted ketolactones. This feature was used to develop a new chemoenzymatic synthesis approach for a prominent group of plant natural products, the (-)-kavains. Both known and new derivatives were synthesised with good to very good enantioselectivity.

Congratulations to Simon and all other contributors!

Find the paper at (open access):

https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cctc.202400883