Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry Blog

Were you there?  Or you might have been following the live tweets from @Grasmere2013, updated by @APDobbs & @AzaPrins?

For a round up of the meeting and some highlight pictures, why not read below for a summary by this year’s organisers!

Grasmere 2013

The Heterocyclic Group began in 1967 and first held a Heterocyclic Conference in the Lake District village of Grasmere in May 1973. This meeting has been repeated every two years since, and the latest in this series took place 9-13th May 2013 and organised by Professors Adrian Dobbs (University of Greenwich) and David Knight (Cardiff University). 

This was a landmark for the meeting, marking 40 years since the first such meeting and the 21st meeting in the series – the ‘coming of age’ symposium! The original founder of the meeting, Professor Otto Meth-Cohn was in attendance and one member of the group, Professor Gurnos Jones has attended all 21 meetings.  As ever, lectures were held in Grasmere Village Hall and the conference booked-out two local hotels, as well as numberous B&B’s. Excellent science and food were in abundance during the meeting, as was the Lakeland rain, but a good time was had by all.

Highlights of the meeting included the presentations of two RSC Medals and their associated lectures: to Professor Scott Rychnovsky (UC Irvine, Pedler Medal) and Professor Chris Moody (University of Nottingham, Charles Rees Medal and Lecture).

Group photo outside Grasmere village Hall

Dr Robin Attrill (GSK); Prof Adrian Dobbs (Uni of Greenwich & Sec/Treasurer Heterocycli & Synthesis Group); Prof Scott Rychnovsky (recipient of the RSC Pedler Medal Award); Dr David Rees (Org Div President); Dr Marie Cote (Deputy Editor, OBC)

Prof Keith Jones (ICR); Prof Chris Moody (Uni of Nottingham, recipient of the RSC Charles Rees Award); Dr David Rees (Astex Pharmaceuticals)

Congratulations to Stijn Agten and Claudia Bello who both received OBC poster prizes at the 5th Chemical Protein Synthesis meeting in Vienna last month.

Stijn Agten, from the group of Professor Tilman Hackeng at Maastricht University, The Netherlands won for a poster entitled “Chemoselective reactions in proteins and peptides using an optimized oxime strategy: the demise of levulinic acid”, while Claudia Bello from the Institute of Biological Chemistry at University of Vienna presented a poster entitled “A Chemoenzymatic Approach for the Preparation of Site-Specifically O-Glycosylated MUC1 variants for Proteomic Studies”.

Both winners receive a year’s subscription to OBC.

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.

A packed audience at Professor George Whitesides’ lecture at IISc Bangalore

At each event Professor George Whitesides, Chair of the Lab on a Chip Editorial Board, gave a plenary lecture which was followed by parallel symposia on Chemical Biology and Physical & Materials chemistry. Visit the RSC India Roadshow website to see more information and photos from the events.

We are proud to announce that the significant International Symposia on Advancing the Chemical Sciences (ISACS) series will return in 2013 to include Challenges in Chemical Biology (ISACS11) on 23-26 July 2013 in Boston, UK.

Abstracts are now invited for this event so submit today and take advantage of this exceptional opportunity to present your work alongside scientists from across the globe.

For details of speakers and conferences themes, please visit the dedicated website.