This research proposal describes the development of artificial metalloenzyme mimics with a minimal but functional outer-coordination sphere. Bioconjugates of chiral amino acids with oxazoline based nitrogen ligands and their metal complexes with Cu(I) and Pd(II) will be synthesized from simple and cheap starting materials using appropriate synthetic methods and characterized by various physico-chemical methods. The metal complexes will be used as catalysts in asymmetric cyclopropanation and in asymmetric alkylation.