Uniting the unparalleled stereoselectivity of enzymes with the efficiency of chemical catalysis offers high product yields and atom economy while limiting downstream processing efforts. However, despite an impressive series of proof-of-concept studies, the field has not yet achieved broad applicability, especially in regard to industrial requirements. Although the focus has been mostly on proof-of-concept studies with well-established model enzymes such as lipases, transaminases, and alcohol dehydrogenases, we expect that the catalytic diversity will soon increase. However, this means that several challenges such as the stability and compatibility of the catalysts, their preference for different solvents, and their possible cross-reactivities in complex reactions need to be tackled. A powerful strategy to overcome these frequently observed ‘incompatibility problems’ of multistep cascade reactions is by physical separation of individual reaction steps through compartmentalization.

将酶无与伦比的立体选择性与化学催化效率相结合，可提供高产率和原子经济性，同时限制下游加工工作。然而，尽管进行了一系列令人印象深刻的概念验证研究，但该领域尚未实现广泛的适用性，尤其是在工业要求方面。尽管重点主要集中在使用成熟的模型酶（如脂肪酶、转氨酶和醇脱氢酶）进行的概念验证研究，但我们预计催化多样性将很快增加。然而，这意味着需要解决几个挑战，例如催化剂的稳定性和相容性、它们对不同溶剂的偏好以及它们在复杂反应中可能的交叉反应性。