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Publisher Summary This chapter summarizes important types of screening experiments commonly to be executed in laboratories engaged in the synthetic applications of lipases. Faced with the necessity of finding the most suitable lipase for the solution of a synthetic problem, organic chemists usually have to address one of the following: (1) adopting an “established” lipase with known selectivities and substrate tolerance toward the transformation of a given substrate; (2) finding the best lipase among commercially available enzymes for the conversion of a given target molecule; (3)finding a new lipase for the conversion of a defined target molecule; and (4) most likely of interest mainly to enzyme producers and in an attempt to make new lipases with interesting properties available to the scientific community, screening lipases—or microorganisms producing such enzymes—for their substrate tolerance, enantioselectivity, solvent dependence, and other properties. The chapter aims to inform the important issues related to the application of these enzymes.

Publisher Summary Lipases are probably at present the most widely used biocatalysts in organic synthesis. Many of them are commercially available, they are frequently stable toward elevated temperatures and organic solvents, and they are easy to handle. Due to their high enantio- and regioselectivities, broad substrate tolerance and versatility in catalyzing both hydrolyses and esterifications, these enzymes have developed in the last decade into high efficient tools in the hands of the organic chemist. With the main focus on lipase-catalyzed esterifications via acyl transfer (transesterification), this chapter describes numerous examples for such reactions as applied to a wide variety of structurally different hydroxy compounds. The examples range from the preparation of enantiomerically pure molecules via kinetic resolutions and enantiotope differentiations, respectively, all the way to regioselective functionalizations of natural products, such as carbohydrates and nucleosides.