Prof. Wolfgang Kroutil

Prof. Wolfgang Kroutil

University of Graz
Institute of Chemistry
Heinrichstrasse 28
8010 Graz
Austria

Wolfgang Kroutil is first supervisor of DC7. Additionally, he is member of the Recruitment committee and the Dissemination and Exploitation Board

Wolfgang Kroutil received his undergraduate training in chemistry at the University of Technology in Graz (Austria) and conducted his PhD-research in Exeter (UK, Prof. S. M. Roberts) as well as in Graz at the University of Technology (Prof. Kurt Faber).
After his PhD he collected two years experience in industry in the biocatalysis research group at Syngenta (formerly Novartis CP) in Basel/CH and in the R&D department of Krems Chemie Chemical Services (Austria).
In 2000 he joined the research group of Prof. Faber at the Department of Chemistry at the Karl-Franzens-University Graz as Assistant Professor. After his habilitation he became Associate Professor in 2004. Since February 2013 he promoted to a full professor.
He was a visiting scientist at the University of Stuttgart/Germany (2003), the University of Cambridge/UK (2004), the University of York/UK (2009) and the UCLA, University of California Los Angeles (2015).
He published more than 280 papers on biocatalysis and contributed to more than 30 patents concerning biocatalysis. In 2003 he received the Science Award of the Austrian Chemical Society and in 2012 the prestigious Biocat award as well as the Biotrans award in 2015.
His research focuses and biocatalytic redox reactions and C-C bond formation and cascades.

 

Key expertise

Wolfgang Kroutil is well known for developing cascades (e.g. first redox neutral aminations) as well as
biocatalytic redox reactions (alcohol dehydrogenase, amination, oxidative C-C bond formation, hydroxylation, etc) and C-C bond formation (tyrosine phenol lyase, etc).
The aim of his group is to develop biocatalytic, ideally sustainable reactions for organic synthesis. Methods used in research involve biotransformations, screening, combining biocatalysis with organic synthesis, organic chemistry, molecular biology, enzyme purification, enzyme engineering, cascades, robotic platforms, reaction optimization etc.

 

Hosting Institution

The University of Graz (UG) was founded in 1585, constitutes one of the largest Austrian research institutions. Numerous outstanding scientists, among them six Nobel price laureates (inter alia Fritz Pregl in Chemistry, 1923), taught and carried out their research at KFU. Today, about 32,000 students and about 4,200 employees are active at UG; hence, this institution contributes significantly to the economic and social life of Graz.

 

Contact

wolfgang.kroutil@uni-graz.at
http://biocatalysis.uni-graz.at/
https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0002-2151-6394
https://online.uni-graz.at/kfu_online
https://www.linkedin.com/in/wolfgang-kroutil-64521559

 

Relevant Publications

1.  Chromoselective Photocatalysis Enables Stereocomplementary Biocatalytic Pathways
L. Schmermund, S. Reischauer, S. Bierbaumer, C. K. Winkler, A. Diaz-Rodriguez, L. J. Edwards, S. Kara, T. Mielke, J. Cartwright, G. Grogan, B. Pieber, W. Kroutil, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 60, 6965-6969 (2021). DOI: 10.1002/anie.202100164.

2. Rational Engineered C‑Acyltransferase Transforms Sterically Demanding Acyl Donors
A. Żądło-Dobrowolska, L. Hammerer, T. Pavkov-Keller, K. Gruber, W. Kroutil, ACS Catal. 10, 1094-1101 (2020).

3.  Biocatalytic Friedel-Crafts Acylation and Fries Reaction
N. G. Schmidt, T. Pavkov-Keller, N. Richter, B. Wiltschi, K. Gruber, W. Kroutil, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 56, 7615-7619 (2017). DOI: 10.1002/anie.201703270