The use of native and engineered enzymes for biocatalytic applications holds great potential for the green synthesis of several platform chemicals and pharmaceutical intermediates. My project focuses on the development of multifunctional nitrilase biocatalysts for the hydrolysis of nitrile substrates to commercially and pharmaceutically important carboxylic acid precursors. The work involves i) genome mining for novel nitrilases and activity screening on a broad substrate panel, ii) enhanced enzyme production using high cell density fermentation process iii) characterization and engineering of nitrilases for enhanced activity or substrate tolerance, and iv) development of efficient biotransformation processes for nitrile conversion. We also work on other industrially important biotransformation using alcohol dehydrogenases, formate dehydrogenases and transaminases.