Recent developments on the fluorinase from Streptomyces cattleya

This is a summary of a lecture presented at the 100th Anniversary, Moissan Symposium in Paris on Friday, 10 November 2006. The lecture highlighted recent developments on the enzyme structure, mechanism and biotransformation prospects of the fluorinase enzyme identified in 2002 from the bacterium Streptomyces cattleya. Over-expression of the enzyme has allowed it to be used as a catalyst for 18F-incorporation during the synthesis of potential ligands for positron emission tomography (PET) applications.