Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry Blog

Congratulations to the OBC poster prize winner at the 2016 CRSI National Symposium!

We were pleased to present the OBC poster prize to Mr. K. Rajasekhar from the group of T. Govindaraju at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore. Mr. K. Rajasekhar presented his work on ‘Rationally designed peptidomimetic modulators of AB toxicity and related oxidative stress in Alzheimer’s disease’ on which he also recently published a Feature Article in Chemical Communications.


The 19th CRSI National Symposium in Chemistry is the most important annual chemistry symposium in India and took place from 14-16 July 2016 at the University of North Bengal (NBU), India.

Read K. Rajasekhar’s recent Feature article in ChemComm:

Function and toxicity of amyloid beta and recent therapeutic interventions targeting amyloid beta in Alzheimer’s disease
K. Rajasekhar, Malabika Chakrabarti and T. Govindaraju
Chem. Commun., 2015,51, 13434-13450

This poster symposium for final year organic chemistry PhD students will take place at The Royal Society of Chemistry at Burlington House, in London, Monday 5 December 2016.

Abstract submission is now open!

The closing date for abstract submissions is Monday 3 October 2016. Get more information or submit an abstract now.

This symposium offers final year PhD students a chance to showcase their research to their peers, leading academics and industrial chemists. It is open to all branches of organic chemistry – in its broadest interpretation – and has a tradition of being the most competitive and highly-regarded organic chemistry symposium for PhD students in the UK and Ireland.

There will be a first prize of £500, two runner-up prizes, and a ‘selected by Industry’ prize. Industrial delegates will select this winner based on the potential for application in an industrial context.

We would like to thank F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Ltd. and our industry sponsors for their generous support of this event.

Microbial protein targets: towards understanding and intervention

14–16 September 2016, Durham, UK

This symposium will bring together leading expertise in protein structure determination, biochemical characterization and chemical biology to explore the most recent advances in the understanding of protein function and inhibition in microbial pathogens – both bacteria and parasites.

An exciting line-up of speakers will present their recent work in the area. Some of the confirmed speakers are:

• Chris Abell University of Cambridge, UK
• Gerald Spaeth Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
• Ed Tate Imperial College London, UK
• Maria Marco-Martin GSK Tres Contos, Spain

Take advantage of this opportunity to showcase your work alongside leaders in the field and submit an abstract for an oral or poster presentation today. Through generous sponsorship from the RSC Chemical Biology Interface Division and the BSP there are bursaries available for early career researchers to support their participation at this meeting.

The oral abstract deadline has just been extended until 15 July 2016, and poster abstracts are welcome until 5 August 2016. For more information and to register please visit the conference webpage.

XXVIII International Carbohydrate Symposium 2016

17^th – 21^st July 2016, New Orleans, Louisiana USA

Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry are pleased to support the 28th International Carbohydrate Symposium.  The conference will feature an excellent range of speakers including:

• Carolyn Bertozzi (Stanford University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute) – Glycocalyx engineering toward probing cancer glycome evolution
• Vincent Bulone (University of Adelaide) – A journey into the world of Eukaryotic cell walls: structure and biosynthesis of essential polysaccharides
• Bruce Hamaker (Purdue University) – Carbohydrate quality and how the concept may relate to healthier foods
• Koichi Kato (Nagoya City University) – Structural views of glycen-dependent determination of glycoprotein fates in cells
• Muthiah Manoharan (Alnylam Pharmaceuticals) – Carbohydrate Conjuated RNAi Therapeutics
• James C Paulson (The Scripps Research Institute) – Sialic acids determinants of self
• Soledad Penades (Centro de Investigacion Cooperativa en Biomateriales, CIC biomaGUNE) – Glycans and Glyconanotechnology
• Stephen G Withers (University of British Columbia) – Accessing new and improved CAZymes through metagenomics and directed evolution

For more information and to book your place please visit the website.

French-American Chemical Society
16th Meeting

19-23 June 2016  –  Santa Barbara, California, USA

Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry and Catalysis Science & Technology are delighted to support the 16th French-American Chemical Society meeting. The conference will feature an excellent range of speakers including:

• Dennis Hall (University of Alberta) – Studies Towards the Synthesis of Polycyclic Alkaloids
• Bastien Nay (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle) – Bio-inspired Strategies for the Total Synthesis of Polycyclic Chalasins and Related PKS-NRPS Natural Products
• Surya Prakash (USC) – Our Recent Studies on Fluoroalkylations
• David Williams (Indiana University) – Studies Towards the Synthesis of Polycyclic Alkaloids, and 
  
• Françoise Colobert (Université de Strasbourg) – Enantiopure Sulfoxide, an Efficient Chiral Directing Group for Stereoselective C-H Bond Activation.

Register now to secure your place and take part in this great five day symposium with 20 speakers comprising established and emerging researchers from both academia and industry. The meeting is organised by Professor Bruce Lipshutz (University of California Santa Barbara), Dr Robert Dodd (Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles) and Dr Jean Suffert (Université de Strasbourg) this year.

For more information and to book your place please visit the event page.

Congratulations to the Poster Prize winner at the University of California Symposium for the Chemical Sciences.

Bryn Taylor (right) with Jennifer Griffiths from the RSC (photo courtesy of Beverly Chou from the Shea group)

The winner is Bryn Taylor of UC San Diego who is currently working as a graduate student in the group of Rob Knight and co-advised by Rommie Amaro. Her research encompasses computational chemistry and biophysics, focusing on microbial proteomes and the function of the microbiome.

The meeting took place for the first time and was supported by eight UC departments (UC Davis, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, UC Riverside, UC Santa Cruz, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara). All areas of chemistry, including biological, organic, inorganic, analytical and physical chemistry were represented and the symposium provided an excellent opportunity for graduate students and postdocs to not only present their work in a multidisciplinary environment, but also take part in different workshops to further their career and establish connections with professionals from industry, government and alternative science jobs.

The prize was presented by the RSC Editorial Development Manager, North America, Dr Jennifer Griffiths.

European-Winter School on Physical Organic Chemistry (E-WiSPOC)

31^st January – 5^th February 2016, Bressanone, Italy

OBC is pleased to support the European-Winter School on Physical Organic Chemistry (E-WiSPOC) 2016.

The topic for 2016 is – Functional Surfaces in Chemistry and Biology.

Lectures will be speaking on a variety of subjects, including:

• Francesco Zerbetto – Theoretical and computational chemistry (University of Bologna)
• Maria Ramos – Computational biochemistry (University of Porto)
• Maria Minunni – Surface plasmon resonance (University of Firenze)
• Chris Hunter – Physical organic chemistry and biomolecular interactions (University of Cambridge)
• Bart Ravoo – Biological and supramolecular system (University of Muenster )
• Jurrian Huskens – Biomolecular adhesion and tissue engineering (University of Twente)
• Alessandro Casnati – Bioorganic and supramolecular chemistry (University of Parma)
• Zoltan Takats – Ambient mass spectrometry (Imperial College London)

The school,which is part of the cultural initiatives of the Organic Division of the Italian Chemical Society, is open to PhD students and post-docs.

For information visit the e-wispoc website: www.chimica.unipd.it/wispoc or write to: wispoc.chimica@unipd.it