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References 265

research on these enzymes. In the development of new pharmaceuticals, however,
biocatalysts are already part of the chemists’ toolbox, which will probably lead to
more cascading reactions using these versatile enzymes in the future. Enzyme
engineering to model the enzyme to required specifications will also play a large
part in this development [80].
On the other hand, cleaning up waste streams and polluted sites will be done
more often using whole (growing) cells or immobilized enzymes or cells [81]. At this
moment, it is not important which enzymes or organisms are used, as long as toxic
nitriles are converted into nontoxic products reducing the environmental burden
of current production methods. In the future, the cradle-to-cradle perspective
will become more important, meaning waste water will act as substrate for new
products. The production of these valuable compounds out of waste water will
guide the kind of organisms that will be needed for natural or artificial cascades to
fully close the cycle [11, 82].

Acknowledgments

All authors are grateful for the support by COST action CM0701: CASCAT. L.
Mart´ ınkov´ a would like to acknowledge the support of the Czech Science Foundation,
project P504/11/0394. F. van Rantwijk and A. Stolz thank the Netherlands Research
Council (NWO) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for financial
support within the framework of the CERC-3 programme.

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