Enzymes catalyzing redox reactions not only drive most chemical reactions in biological systems, they also play an increasing role in chemical industrial processes. The family of redox enzymes includes several groups of enzyme catalysts including oxygenases, dehydrogenases, oxidases and reductases for the oxidation and reduction of various functional groups. This special issue in Current Opinion in Chemical Biology presents a series of reviews that cover recent research advances in oxidation/reduction processes using redox enzymes. The field of oxidoreductase-mediated organic synthesis has been an area of intensive investigation. As shown by the reviews in this special issue, scientists from chemistry and biology are developing efficient and novel redox enzymes and implementing them in new ways to carry out synthetic transformations of major interest for the industrial biotechnology sector.