Academic vs. Industrial Research – Dichotomy or Synergism?

Abstract

Two examples are presented illustrating how a research project in industry was promoted by collaboration with an academic institution, and vice versa. Both projects were in part completed at the "Ruđer Bošković" Institute, Zagreb, in collaboration with one domestic and one foreign company. The first example, "from academy to industry", illustrates combined chemo- and biocatalytic synthesis of Cytoxazone and related isomers. Cytoxazone was isolated as a fermentation product of Streptomyces sp. strain and exhibits significant immuno-stimulating activity. The second example, "from industry to academy", refers to the discovery of unprecedented enzymatic dynamic kinetic resolution (DKR) of racemic epoxides into only one enantiomer of a heterocyclic target molecule, an important chiral building block for the synthesis of optically pure drugs.