The instinctive desire of organic chemists to imitate the catalytic machinery of enzymes has brought about the development of the first catalytic highly enantioselective synthesis of α-amino acid derivatives by biomimetic transamination. Key to success was the ability of a cinchona-based chiral catalyst to mimic the general base-acid catalytic mechanism of the natural transaminases.
![A bio-inspired route to alpha-amino acid derivatives](https://www.iciq.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/A-bio-inspired-route-to-alpha_459.gif)