Author Archive

Work on metallo-β-lactamase inhibitors commended as Ricky Cain wins the latest OBC poster prize

Congratulations to Ricky Cain who was presented with the OBC poster prize award on the occasion of the Royal Society of Chemistry Organic Division North East Regional Meeting, held at the University of Huddersfield on Monday 4 March 2013.

Ricky is a postgraduate research student working under the supervision of Profs. Colin Fishwick and Peter Johnson at the University of Leeds,  and won for his work on the Design and synthesis of metallo-β-lactamase inhibitors. Ricky receives a one-year personal subscription to OBC.

Professor Joe Sweeney (University of Huddersfield) Dr Anne Horan (Royal Society of Chemistry) Ricky Cain (University of Leeds) Dr David Rees (Astex Pharmaceuticals and President of RSC Organic Division)

 Photo provided by the University of Huddersfield.

Also read the news item featured on the University of Leeds, School of Chemistry homepage.

Congratulations again to Ricky on his award! The OBC team wishes him all the very best with his future research work.

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Meet the OBC team – See where and when you can meet us in 2013

The Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry team will be attending a number of conferences in 2013 and we would be delighted to meet you there.  

 

Dr Marie Cote, Deputy Editor

Dr Richard Kelly, Managing Editor

We’re also the team behind OBC‘s sister journals MedChemComm, Natural Product Reports, and the latest addition to the portfolio, Toxicology Research, so we’ll happily discuss your interdisciplinary research work. In fact, many of our authors choose to publish their research across all of these titles.  

Here are just some of the conferences where you can meet us in the coming months:  

RSC India Roadshow, visiting Kolkata, Pune and Bangalore – 5-11 February 2013, India – View the full details, including the confirmed speakers’ list– Meet Richard
Society of Toxicology’s 52nd Annual Meeting –10-14 March 2013, San Antonio, Texas, USA – Meet Marie
40th Lakeland Heterocyclic meeting– 9-13 May 2013, Grasmere, UK – Meet Marie
Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC)– 23-26 June 2013, San Francisco, USA – Meet Richard
8-ISMSC (International Symposium on Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry) – 07-11 July 2013, Washington DC, USA – Meet Richard
ESOC 2013 (8th European Symposium on Organic Chemistry) – 08-12 July 2013, Marseille, France – Meet Marie
OMCOS 17 (IUPAC Conference on Organometallic Chemistry Towards Organic Synthesis)- 28 July to 01 August 2013, Fort Collins, USA – Meet Marie
EUROTOX 2013– 01-04 September 2013, Interlaken, Switzerland – Meet Marie
Fall ACS meeting– 08-12 September 2013, Indianapolis, USA – Meet Richard
Asian Medicinal Chemistry Conference – October 2013, Taipei, Taiwan – Meet Richard
15th BMOS – Brazilian Meeting on Organic Synthesis, 10-13 November 2013, Campos do Jordão, Brazil – Meet Richard  

Let us know if you are planning on attending any of these meetings, as it would be lovely to see you there! 

  

       

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OBC poster prize awarded at ICPOC-21

Congratulations to Michael J. Rawling, from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, who won the Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry poster prize at the 21st IUPAC  International Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry (ICPOC21 ) in Durham on 9th-13th September 2012.

His winning poster was entitled ‘Metal-Free Dihydroxylation of Alkenes’, presenting his work carried out in Prof. Nicholas Tomkinson‘s group.

Prof. Ian Williams presents Michael Rawling with his certificate. (Photo taken by Anne Horan)

Michael receives a one-year personal subscription to Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, and a book of his choice from the RSC books catalogue. Thank you to Ian Williams, Professor of Theoretical Organic Chemistry at the University of Bath, for awarding the prize certificate.

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Using Chemistry to improve Agricultural Productivity

Chemistry for Tomorrow’s World 2012: Using Chemistry to Improve Agricultural Productivity

6 pm, 26 September 2012
Chemistry Centre, Burlington House, London

Join us at the RSC’s Chemistry Centre in London to hear about how synthetic organic chemistry can help to feed the world.

Azoxystrobin is the world’s leading agricultural fungicide. It is a fully synthetic compound, whose invention was inspired by the structure and activity of the naturally-occurring fungicide strobilurin A. Today it is used worldwide to control fungi growing on over 120 types of crop, improving plant health, raising quality and increasing yield. The success of the project highlights the crucial importance of chemistry in meeting grand challenges such as global food security and the broader applicability of skills such as natural product synthesis. Our keynote speaker Dr John Clough led the team of chemists at Syngenta that invented azoxystrobin. He will discuss the key role that synthetic organic chemistry played in creating an effective and safe fungicide.

This event will be held in the Chemistry Centre on 26 September at the RSC’s recently refurbished building in Burlington House, London. Doors will open at 17:30 for refreshments. The event will begin at 18:00 and will finish with a wine reception. Please follow the link here for information and to register for the event.

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Organometallics in catalysis: an article collection

Perhaps the most well-known applications of organometallics in catalysis are the Ziegler–Natta catalysts which are used to generate polymers, the catalysts are made up of mixtures of transition metal halides and organo-aluminium complexes. Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta were awarded the 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery and development of the catalysts, which today are the most commonly used for the manufacture of polythene.

The esteemed history of organometallics are not to be under-estimated and include Grignard’s reagents, the Heck reaction, Schrock catalysts, Grubbs’ catalysts and the Suzuki Coupling to name just a few. Organometallic compounds have revolutionised science and industry and to keep you up to date with the latest break-through research being made across all areas of organometallics in catalysis, we have made this cross-journal article collection free until the 26th September.

Click here for the full list of free articles

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Meet the team at BOSS XIII

I will shortly be attending the 13th Belgian Organic Synthesis Symposium (BOSS XIII) in Leuven, 15-20 July, and if you too are in attendance, I’ d love to meet you there!

Please let us know if you will also be in attendance and would like to arrange a meeting – simply email us at the OBC editorial office.

Dr Marie Cote, Oganic & Biomolecular Chemistry Deputy Editor

OBC is delighted to be a media partner of the conference, and there’s a lot to look forward to again on this 13th edition of the symposium:

  • Prof. Ben Feringa (University of Groningen, The Netherlands) is the  Tetrahedron Chair 2012 awardee, and will give lectures all throughout the opening day on ‘Exploring chiral space in asymmetric catalysis’.
  • Prof. Illan Marek (Technion – Israel Institute of Technology) is the recipient of the 2012 Janssen Pharmaceutica Prize for Creativity in Organic Synthesis

Plenary lectures at the symposium will be given by :

  • Prof. Matthias Beller (University of Rostock, Germany)
  • Prof. Dale L. Boger (The Scripps research institute, La Jolla, USA)
  • Prof. Jan-Erling Backvall (Stockholm University, Sweden)
  • Prof. Karl Gademann (University of Basel, Switzerland)
  • Prof. Frank Glorius (University of Muenster, Germany)
  • Prof. Veronique Gouverneur (University of Oxford, UK)
  • Prof. Shu Kobayashi (University of Tokyo, Japan)
  • Professor Michael Krishe (University of Texas, Austin, USA)
  • Dr Emmanuel Lacote (ICSN – CNRS, France)
  • Prof. Istvan Marko (UCL, Belgium)
  • Prof. Gary A. Molander (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
  • Prof. Klaus Mueller (F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Switzerland)
  • Prof. Tobias Ritter (Harvard University, USA)
  • Prof. Scott Snyder (Columbia University, USA)
  • Prof. Paul A. Wender (Stanford University, USA)
  • Prof. Ming Hua Xu (Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, PR China)

I look forward to meeting you in Leuven!

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RSC US Roadshow 2012 – Week 4: North East

Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry Editor Richard Kelly will be visiting several North East universities next week as part of the RSC US Roadshows 2012.

Week 4 sees the Royal Society of Chemistry visiting four universities in Pennsylvania and New York:

May 7th – University of Pittsburgh
May 8th – Pennsylvania State University
May 10th – University of Pennsylvania
May 11th – Columbia University

Read more about the US roadshows 2012:

Starting in mid April 2012, RSC Publishing has been touring the United States of America to share more than 170 years experience of publishing in the chemical sciences. Sixteen universities across the country are hosting these one-day events, which are open to all members of the hosting institute.

Attendees have the opportunity to explore RSC’s apps on mobile devices and meet informally with RSC editors. Lunchtime discussion groups explore reading habits and opportunities in the 21st century and an afternoon seminar give an insight into the world of scholarly publishing, with tips on how to get published in high impact journals. A demonstration of ChemSpider, and a guest lecture from an RSC associate editor or board member are available at many of the roadshows.

Follow the RSC Roadshows on Twitter – just look for #RSC2012.

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HOT: Critical enzyme–substrate interactions in GlfT2-catalyzed mycobacterial galactan assembly

Todd L. Lowary and colleagues at the University of Alberta, Canada, have synthesised a series of UDP-galactofuranose analogs and used these analogs to examine enzyme–substrate binding interactions for the galactofuranosyltransferase enzyme GlfT2, a glycosyltransferase responsible for the formation of the galactan complex in M. tuberculosis and a potential drug target.

Critical hydrogen bonding interactions within the active site of the mycobacterial galactofuranosyltransferase GlfT2 are revealed and it is hoped the knowledge of these specific protein-carbohydrate interactions may be explored for the development of novel inhibitors.

Selected as ‘Hot’, this article will be FREE to access for the next 4 weeks.
Why not read it now and let us know what you think by leaving a comments below!

Synthetic UDP-galactofuranose analogs reveal critical enzyme–substrate interactions in GlfT2-catalyzed mycobacterial galactan assembly
Myles B. Poulin, Ruokun Zhou and Todd L. Lowary
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2OB25159K, Paper

 

Todd L. Lowary’s OBC work is also highlighted in this C&EN news story ‘Determining Sugar Sequence Fidelity’

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HOT: Glycosylated diazeniumdiolate-based oleanolic acid derivatives as therapeutic agents for human hepatocellular carcinoma

Following their earlier work on nitric oxide (NO) releasing oleanolic acid (OA) derivatives as therapeutic agents for human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) – the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide without effective chemotherapy – Prof. Yihua Zhang and coll. at the Center of Drug Discovery, China Pharmaceutical University (Nanjing, P.R. China) have designed a series of glycosylated diazeniumdiolate derivatives of oleanolic acid.

One of the coupounds has been found to selectively inhibit the proliferation of HCC in vivo but not that of non-tumor liver cells, with relatively low acute toxicity, and may be a promising drug candidate against HCC.

The authors also provide an in-depth analysis of the mechanisms underlying the action of this group of glycosylated diazeniumdiolate-based OA derivatives…

Want to know more? Why not read now, the article will be FREE to access to all for the next four weeks

Glycosylated diazeniumdiolate-based oleanolic acid derivatives: synthesis, in vitro and in vivo biological evaluation as anti-human hepatocellular carcinoma agents
Zhangjian Huang, Junjie Fu, Ling Liu, Yijun Sun, Yisheng Lai, Hui Ji, Edward E. Knaus, Jide Tian and Yihua Zhang
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2OB25252J, Paper

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Modern microwave chemistry opportunities to develop new antibiotics and antiviral drugs on OBC Issue 14’s cover

Welcome to OBC issue 14, 2012

On the cover features work by Mats Larhed et al. at Uppsala University, Sweden, who describe in this highly topical review the use of controlled microwave heating in discovery chemistry to combat four of the most prevalent and serious infectious diseases: tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, malaria and hepatitis C.

This Perspective highlights the large number of diverse chemical transformations that can be accomplished using controlled and automated single-mode microwave heating.

Why not read it now, it will be FREE to access for the next 6 weeks!

 

 

 Microwave-assisted synthesis of small molecules targeting the infectious diseases tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, malaria and hepatitis C
Johan Gising, Luke R. Odell and Mats Larhed
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2OB06833H, Perspective

Also in this issue, a Hot Article by Robert M. Strongin et al. on a cysteine selective indicator based on a seminaphthofluorescein, and much more!

View the full issue here

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