Syn-chemist

Compound, called Palau'amine, a compound found in sponge off Palau, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, that has shown anticancer, antibacterial, and antifungal activities. Many synthetic researchers were trying this challenge, but it is a team of scientists lead by Prof. Phil S. Baran from The Scripps Research Institute, that has finally completed the quest.....

Ref : http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123227557/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

New method for producing 'libraries' of important carbohydrate molecules

2010-05-23T23:32:00.000-07:00

New method for producing 'libraries' of important carbohydrate molecules

Complex organic molecules speed development of new drugs

2010-04-07T05:41:00.000-07:00

Complex organic molecules speed development of new drugs

Scripps Research Team Wins Global Race To Achieve Landmark Synthesis Of Perplexing Natural Product

2010-02-03T00:17:00.001-08:00

Scripps Research Team Wins Global Race To Achieve Landmark Synthesis Of Perplexing Natural Product

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Tamiflu starting from D-ribose an efficient inexpensive method....

2010-01-13T22:53:00.000-08:00

We know the recent hue and cry about the stock piling of Tamiflu (Oseltamivir) and there by the deficiency of the drug. The commercially (see the below scheme; source : wikipedia) used method i.e., Karpf / Trussardi synthesis make use of Shikimic acid. Many researchers have tried alternative raw materials for the synthesis of the drug and are successful also (see other schemes).

Now Anqi Chen and Christina Chai of Shionogi & Co., Ltd have come up with a new process for making the drug that does not use shikimic acid. They found that D-ribose, a naturally-occurring sugar produced by fermentation in large scales, potentially provides an inexpensive and abundant source of starting material for making the drug. D-ribose costs only about one-sixth as much as shikimic acid. In lab studies, the scientists demonstrated the potential use of D-ribose as an alternative source for the synthesis of Tamiflu.

As per the claim by the authors, the concise alternative route (12 steps) does not utilize protecting groups and features the introduction of 3-pentylidene ketal as the latent 3-pentyl ether, the use of a highly efficient RCM reaction to form the Tamiflu skeleton, and selective functional group manipulations (see Scheme 2, source : Organic Letters)

Ref : http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ol9024716

Improved recipe for catalysts

2009-12-22T20:04:00.000-08:00

Improved recipe for catalysts

Olefination of arenes via palladium-catalysed Mizoroki-Heck reaction...

2009-11-28T23:13:00.000-08:00

Olefination of arenes is challenging because there are a number of positions on the aromatic ring to which the olefin can attach and there by leading to different isomers. One way is to follow the Heck reaction. The main criteria required for this reaction is that, the target carbon of the ring to be halogenated. And as synthetic chemists we know how tricky to get the halogenated compounds and that is why this reaction has limited applications. Its interesting to note that researchers from Scripps Research Institute have come with a novel procedure, where in there is no compulsion of halogenated compound.

As per the claim by the authors, the procedure is operationallysimple, economical. The presence of a carboxyl group adjacent to the target C-H on the ring results in a phenomenon called the complex-induced proximity effect, which pulls the catalyst towards the relevant bond. In cases where the two ortho positions are equivalent, this approach alone can result in good yields of the desired product. When the substituents are different, the selectivity has been achieved by the use of amino acid-derived ligands between sterically and electronically similar ortho positions - which is really interesting...

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2009/November/27110902.asp

Cambrex wins the CPhI Innovation Award for its Continuous-Flow Microwave-Assisted Organic Synthesis technology

2009-10-21T00:13:00.000-07:00

Cambrex wins the CPhI Innovation Award for its Continuous-Flow Microwave-Assisted Organic Synthesis technology

Mainly...

2009-06-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

I am trying to concentrate mainly on "Med-Chemist" blog, but as and when I find interesting news (innovative research in the synthetic field), will continue with this blog toooo..

Thanx for visiting my blog(s). Pls, have ur valuable inputs/comments.....

New synthetic material (chameleon-like !) linked to opal ?

2009-01-12T08:51:00.000-08:00

A new material could give a Chameleon a run for its money - it can rapidly change colour to match that of any in the visible spectrum.

The synthetic material can be likened to an opal, a mineral that owes its variety of colours to its layered structure: regions with a high refractive index, in which light travels slowly, are interleaved with regions with a low refractive index. Light waves with a wavelength - or colour - similar to that of the space between layers are scattered in a way that gives opal its iridescent sheen.

The chameleon-like "opal" developed by British and Canadian chemists has a similar layered structure. But their material goes one better than nature. It can rapidly shrink or swell to change the distance between its layered regions, changing the colour of light that it scatters (video).

Source :Newscientist, 23 December 2008.

Mystery of chirality from the elementary building blocks of matter resolved ?

2008-12-11T06:37:00.000-08:00

The inception of chirality from the elementary building blocks of matter is one of the great mysteries of the origin of life. I think now this mystery is resolved and can be explained by Richard Rosenberg’s experiment, i.e., by changing the magnetization direction in relation to the high intensity X ray beam created an excess of one chirality over another. More…

A dipeptide as memory molecule ! ........

2008-12-11T06:05:00.000-08:00

Ehud Gazit and his colleaugues at the University of Tel Aviv, Israel, have developed a novel approach for treatment of Alzheimer's disease. They have developed a compound made from two non-physiological amino acids (α-aminoisobutyric acid and D-tryptophan), that appears to improve the cognitive abilities of a murine model of the disease and reduces the formation of the precursors to amyloid plaques in their brains. I hope this interesting research, may lead to a hope for the Alzheimer patients......

A faster, cleaner and greener way to synthesize N-heterocycles…….

2008-12-11T04:30:00.000-08:00

As for as my knowledge goes many of the drugs ( more than 200 brand-name drugs) are nitrogen-containing ring-shaped structure (N-heterocycle). Manufacturing these drugs depends on the ability to synthesize N-heterocycles, but most synthetic reactions take a long time (multiple steps) and produce toxic waste byproducts along with use of hazardous chemicals such as hydrazine hydrate or acid hydrazides etc. Driver and his coworkers have devised a chemical reaction that creates a carbon-nitrogen bond, such as in the N-heterocycle, using an azide. Driver's reaction reduces the number of steps needed to synthesize the N-heterocycle molecules along with this, the more advantage of this reaction is 'nitrogen gas' as the only by product. Its really interesting indoles, pyrroles, carbazoles and benzimidazoles have been synthesized in very good yields. Congrats Dr. Driver and I hope this group,will come with more N-Heterocycles via this azide route.…..