Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Call For Papers: Chemoenzymatic Synthesis

10 Nov 2023

Call For Papers: Chemoenzymatic Synthesis

Guest edited by Hiroki Oguri, Hongzhi Cao & Suvarn Kulkarni

We are delighted to announce a call for papers for our latest online themed collection in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry on Chemoenzymatic Synthesis guest edited by Professor Hiroki Oguri (University of Tokyo, Japan), Professor Hongzhi Cao (Ocean University of China, China) and Professor Suvarn Kulkarni (IIT Bombay, India).

This collection in OBC is dedicated to the emerging advancements in Chemoenzymatic Synthesis across a wide array of natural products, including sugars, lipids, terpenes, polyketides, peptide, alkaloids and their hybrids. This integrative synthetic approach not only harnesses the power of enzymes but also leverages the versatility of chemical synthesis regarding substrate design and product diversification.

This call for papers is open to both communication (for urgent work – up to 5 pages) and full papers.

Open for submissions until 30th April 2024

If you would like to contribute to this themed collection, you can submit your article directly through the OBC online submission service. Please mention that this submission is a contribution to the Chemoenzymatic Synthesis collection in the “Themed issues” section of the submission form and add a “Note to the Editor” that this is from the Open Call. The Editorial Office reserves the right to check suitability of submissions in relation to the scope of both the journal and the collection, and inclusion of accepted articles in the final themed issue is not guaranteed.

Please also note that all submissions will be subject to our usual rigorous peer review process, including initial assessment to ensure the high standards of the journal and acceptance is not guaranteed. Accepted manuscripts will be highlighted together in a dedicated virtual collection alongside an editorial, regardless of submission date, and there will be no delay in the publication of all accepted manuscripts into regular issues of OBC.

If you have any questions about the collection, then please contact the Editorial Office at obc-rsc@rsc.org and they will be happy to help.

With best regards,

Hiroki, Hongzhi and Suvarn

Professor Hiroki Oguri (University of Tokyo, Japan)

Professor Hongzhi Cao (Ocean University of China, China)

Professor Suvarn Kulkarni (IIT Bombay, India)

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Outstanding Reviewers for Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry in 2018

14 Mar 2019

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry in 2018, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

We would like to say a big thank you to those individuals listed here as well as to all of the reviewers that have supported the journal. Each Outstanding Reviewer will receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

Professor Jonathan Clayden, University of Bristol (http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5080-9535)
Dr Yumin Dai, Takeda Pharmaceuticals (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9228-3671)
Professor Lourdes Gude, Universidad de Alcalá (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0220-3755)
Dr Koji Hirano, Osaka University (http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9752-1985)
Dr Maxim Kuznetsov, “Instituto Superior Tecnico Centro de Quimica Estrutural” (http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5729-6189)
Dr Rafal Loska, Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0823-4675)
Professor Sripada Ramasastry, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali (http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5814-9092)
Dr Rui Shang, University of Tokyo
Professor Colin Suckling, University of Strathclyde (http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4515-5498)
Professor Dean Tantillo, University of California, Davis
Professor Mark Taylor, University of Toronto (http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3424-4380)
Dr Akhilesh Verma, University of Delhi (http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7626-5003)
Professor Mario Waser, Johannes Kepler University Linz (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8421-8642)
Professor Robert Young, GSK (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7763-0575)
Professor Jian Zhou, East China Normal University

We would also like to thank the Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry board and the organic and chemical biology communities for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal, just email us at obc@rsc.org with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé. You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre

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Outstanding Reviewers for Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry in 2017

20 Mar 2018

Outstanding Reviewers for Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry in 2017

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry in 2017, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

Professor Kyo Han Ahn, Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea, ORCID: 0000-0001-7192-7215
Dr Yumin Dai, Virginia Tech, USA
Dr Stephen Hashmi, Universität Heidelberg, Germany, ORCID: 0000-0002-6720-8602
Dr Shih-Yuan Liu, Boston College, Merkert Chemistry Centre, USA, ORCID: 0000-0003-3148-9147
Dr Luis Simón, University of Salamanca, Spain, ORCID: 0000-0002-3781-0803
Professor Colin Suckling, University of Strathclyde, UK
Dr Mark Taylor, University of Toronto, Canada, ORCID: 0000-0003-3424-4380
Dr Mario Waser, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Austria, ORCID: 0000-0002-8421-8642
Professor Shuli You, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, China, ORCID: 0000-0003-4586-8359
Dr Jian Zhou, East China Normal University, China

We would also like to thank the Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry board and the wider community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal you can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre.

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Outstanding Reviewers for Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry in 2016

24 Feb 2017

Following the success of Peer Review Week in September 2016 (dedicated to reviewer recognition) during which we published a list of our top reviewers, we will continue to recognise the contribution that our reviewers make to the journal by announcing our Outstanding Reviewers each year.

Outstanding Reviewers for Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry in 2016, as selected by the editorial team, have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

A big thank you to those individuals listed here as well as to all of the reviewers that have supported the journal, helping us to get decisions to authors in under 3 weeks, on average. Each Outstanding Reviewer will receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

Professor Kyo Han Ahn, Pohang Univeristy of Science and Technology

Professor Barry Carpenter, Cardiff University

Dr Justin Chalker, Flinders University

Dr Bobo Dang, University of California

Professor Concepción González Bello, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

Dr Alakananda Hajra, Visva-Bharati University

Dr Charles Heath, CSIRO

Professor Colin Suckling, University of Strathclyde

Professor David Yu-Kai Chen, Seoul National University

Professor Jian Zhou, East China Normal University

We would also like to thank the Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry boards and the organic chemistry community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal, just email us with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé. You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre

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Time to Publication 2016

10 Feb 2017

At OBC, we know one thing important to our authors is getting a decision to them quickly after they’ve submitted to us. That is why we worked extremely hard in 2016 to make this incredible fast, again.

We are proud to announce that in 2016, Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry got the first decision to authors in 12 days for Communications and 18 days for Papers on average, based on articles sent for peer review.

Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry’s Publication Times for 2016

Our average time from submission to Final Article Publication in 2016 was only 34 days for Communications and 43 days for Papers. As well as this, if an author opted for our Accepted Manuscript option, the unedited version of their manuscript was online a week earlier!

We would like to thank our referees for sending us thorough reviews so quickly as we could not have done this without you. We will be celebrating our referees more in the coming months so make sure you check back on this page.

If you would like to submit to OBC for rapid consideration of your high-quality organic chemistry research please see our website.

Make sure you’re following us on Twitter (@OrgBiomolChem) and Facebook (@obc.journal)!

Stay up to date with the latest from Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry by signing up for our weekly e-mail alerts. Fill in the online form today at http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/forms/V5profile.asp

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Top 10 Reviewers for Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry

21 Sep 2016

In celebration of Peer Review Week, with the theme around Recognition for Review – we would like to highlight the top 10 reviewers for Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry in 2016, as selected by the editor for their significant contribution to the journal.

Name	Institution
Professor Dean Tantillo	University of California, Davis
Reviewer has requested to remain anonymous.
Dr Alakananda Hajra	Visva-Bharati
Dr Concepcion Gonzalez-Bello	CIQUS, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
Dr Hiroshi Matsubara	Osaka Prefecture University
Professor Jonathan Clayden	University of Bristol
Dr Zhiyi Liu	Houston Methodist Research Institute
Dr Rob Young	GlaxoSmithKline
Dr Marco Di Antonio	University of Cambridge
Dr Koji Hirano	Osaka University

We would like to say a massive thank you to these reviewers as well as the Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry Editorial and Advisory Boards and all of the Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

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New Editorial and Advisory Board Members

29 Jun 2016

We are very pleased to welcome two new members to our Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry Editorial Board and two new members to our Advisory Board – Dr Géraldine Masson (Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles, France) and Professor Govindasamy Mugesh (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India), and Dr Gonçalo Bernardes (University of Cambridge, UK) and Dr Ratmir Derda (University of Alberta, Canada).

Géraldine Masson received her PhD in 2003 from the Joseph Fourier University, (France), under the supervision of Dr. Sandrine Py and Prof. Yannick Vallée. In the years 2003–2005 she was a Marie Curie postdoctoral research fellow with Prof. Jan van Maarseveen and Prof. Henk Hiemstra at the University of Amsterdam (Holland). In 2005, she joined the Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles (CNRS, France) as Chargé de Recherche and was promoted to Director of Research 2nd class in 2014. Her group’s research activities are directed toward the development of new organocatalytic enantioselective reactions and novel synthetic methodologies, and photoredox catalysis and their application in the synthesis of diverse natural and unnatural molecules displaying biologically activities.

Mugesh received his B.Sc. (1990) and M.Sc. (1993) degrees from the University of Madras and Bharathidasan University, respectively. He obtained his Ph.D. (1998) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Technical University, Braunschweig, Germany and a Skaggs postdoctoral fellow at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA. Mugesh is an author of more than 120 publications in international peer reviewed journals. He received several awards and recognitions, which include: J. C. Bose National Fellowship, Government of India (2016); Asian Rising Star Commemorative Plaque, Asian Chemical Congress (2013), Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC, 2013), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (2012), Fellow, The National Academy of Sciences, India (2012), AstraZeneca Excellence in Chemistry Award (2012); Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences (2012); Swarnajayanti Fellowship, Government of India (2006-07).

His research interests include:

chemistry of thyroid hormone metabolism,
development of novel therapeutics for endothelial dysfunction and neurodegenerative diseases, and
nanomaterials for biological applications.

Gonçalo Bernardes graduated in Chemistry from the University of Lisbon in 2004 and soon moved to the University of Oxford where he completed his D.Phil. in 2008 under the supervision of Prof. Ben Davis. He was then awarded a Marie-Curie Fellowship to perform postdoctoral studies with Prof. Peter H. Seeberger. After a short period in Portugal working as a Group Leader at Alfama Lda., Gonçalo moved to the ETH Zürich to join the lab of Prof. Dario Neri. Gonçalo started his independent research career in 2013 at the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge after being awarded a prestigious Royal Society University Research Fellowship. Simultaneously, he founded a pioneering research unit in Chemical Pharmacology at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular in Lisbon. Despite his early age, he has published >50 papers and 5 patents. He has picked many accolades during his research career such as the European Young Chemist Award – Silver Medal in 2014, and more recentlythe Chem Soc Rev Emerging Investigator Lectureship 2016 and the RSC Harrison–Meldola Memorial Prize. For his efforts in translational research, Gonçalo was distinguished by the Portuguese Ministry of Health (MH) of Portugal for relevant services to Public Health and Medicine.

He now spends his time between his labs in Cambridge and Lisbon, directing a research program at the interface of chemistry and biology with a focus on the development of novel chemoselective reactions for the modification of biomolecules, and their use to understand and influence human disease.

Ratmir Derda received his undergraduate degree in Physics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 2001 and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2008, under the supervision of Laura L. Kiessling. From 2008 to 2011, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University working under the supervision of George M. Whitesides and Donald E. Ingber. He joined University of Alberta in 2011 as an Assistant Professor in Chemistry and the Principal Investigator at the Alberta Glycomics Centre.

The Derda Lab centers on the development and mechanistic investigation of chemical transformations of genetically-encoded substrates. We employ genetically-encoded chemical libraries to attack unsolved problems in molecular recognition to aid the discovery of new therapeutics, biomaterials and molecular diagnostics.

Find some of their most recent RSC publications below or find out more about the other members of our Editorial and Advisory Boards here.

Catalytic, highly enantioselective, direct amination of enecarbamates
Audrey Dumoulin, Claudia Lalli, Pascal Retailleau and Géraldine Masson
Chem. Comm. , 2015, 51 , 5383-5386, DOI: 10.1039/C4CC08052A, Communication

One pot and selective intermolecular aryl- and heteroaryl-trifluoromethylation of alkenes by photoredox catalysis
Aude Carboni, Guillaume Dagousset, Emmanuel Magnier and Géraldine Masson
Chem. Comm. , 2014, 50 , 14197-14200, DOI: 10.1039/C4CC08052A, Communication

Insights into the catalytic mechanism of synthetic glutathione peroxidase mimetics
Debasish Bhowmick and Govindasamy Mugesh
Org. Biomol. Chem. , 2015, 13, 10262-10272, DOI: 10.1039/C5OB01665G, Review Article

Introduction of a catalytic triad increases the glutathione peroxidase-like activity of diaryl diselenides
Debasish Bhowmick and Govindasamy Mugesh
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2015, 13, 9072-9082, DOI: 10.1039/C5OB01294E, Paper

Iminoboronates are Efficient Intermediates for Selective, Rapid and Reversible N-Terminal Cysteine Functionalisation
Hélio Faustino, Maria José Silva, Luis F. Veiros, Gonçalo J. L. Bernardes and Pedro M. P. Gois
Chem. Sci., 2016, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C6SC01520D, Edge Article

Natural product modulators of transient receptor potential (TRP) channels as potential anti-cancer agents
Tiago Rodrigues, Florian Sieglitz and Gonçalo J. L. Bernardes
Chem. Soc. Rev., 2016, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C5CS00916B, Tutorial Review

Phage-displayed macrocyclic glycopeptide libraries
Simon Ng and Ratmir Derda
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2016, 14, 5539-5545, DOI: 10.1039/C5OB02646F, Communication

Heat-enhanced peptide synthesis on Teflon-patterned paper
Frédérique Deiss, Yang Yang, Wadim L. Matochko and Ratmir Derda
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2016, 14, 5148-5156, DOI: 10.1039/C6OB00898D, Paper

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Revitalizing palladium-catalyzed α-arylation of enolates to generate diverse isoquinoline-based compounds

25 Jan 2016

Research efforts carried out by Professor Timothy Donohoe of Oxford University have been focussed on connecting new methodologies in organic synthesis and catalysis with impactful applications to the fields of medicinal chemistry and natural product synthesis.

One of the group’s most recent endeavors includes the development of a generalized strategy to access highly functionalized and diverse isoquinoline cores without the use of expensive and highly-specialized starting materials.

The isoquinoline motif and its derivatives are ubiquitous in a number of natural products, pharmaceutical agents, and chiral catalyst ligands. However, classical syntheses are often centered on electrophilic aromatic substitution of electron-rich systems, resulting in limited chemical diversity in accessible products. New routes are still highly desirable and a resurgence in synthetic efforts has resulted in a number of notable contributions using modern synthetic methodology.

In 2012, Prof. Donohoe and coworkers reported a sequential palladium-catalyzed α-arylation of enolates and cyclization to access isoquinolines based on chemistry originally and independently reported by Buckwald, Hartwig and Miura in 1997. Though a powerful reaction, it remained underutilized in the assembly of complex aromatic compounds. Using clever reaction engineering, Donohoe and coworkers envisioned synthesizing a psuedo-1,5-dicarbonyl accessible through α-arylation of enolizable ketones with aryl halides possessing a protected aldehyde or ketone in the ortho-position. In addition, trapping with reactive electrophiles resulted in functionalization at the C4 position. This methodology can be carried out in one pot, tolerates a wide range of substituents and most notably, provides a route to synthetically challenging electron-deficient isoquinoline scaffolds.

Palladium-catalyzed enolate arylation as a key C–C bond-forming reaction for the synthesis of isoquinolines

Their current study presents significant extensions of this earlier work and further demonstrates the innovation possible through transition metal catalysis in enabling the construction of complex architectures in interesting ways. The three- and four-component coupling procedures involve multiple bond formations in one pot from largely commercially available starting materials. Reaction versatility is demonstrated through the use of ketone, ester or nitrile enolates as well as electron-rich, electron-deficient or even sterically hindered aryl halides and in situ functionalization of intermediates to directly access a number of highly functionalized isoquinoline based compounds.

In addition to rejuvenating interesting and underexplored chemistry, Prof. Donohoe and coworkers have appreciably impacted the areas of natural product synthesis and medicinal chemistry through their innovative and streamlined synthesis of isoquinoline-based compounds and it will be interesting to see where their future endeavours will lead.

To find out more see:

Palladium-catalyzed enolate arylation as a key C–C bond-forming reaction for the synthesis of isoquinolines
Ben S. Pilgrim, Alice E. Gatland, Carlos H. A. Esteves, Charlie T. McTernan, Geraint R. Jones, Matthew R. Tatton, Panayiotis A. Procopiou and Timothy J. Donohoe
DOI: 10.1039/C5OB02320C

Victoria Corless is currently completing her Ph.D. in organic chemistry with Prof. Andrei Yudin at The University of Toronto. Her research is centred on the synthesis of kinetically amphoteric molecules, which offer a versatile platform for the development of chemoselective transformations with particular emphasis on creating novel biologically active molecules.

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Applying old tricks to new problems: Acyl Fluorides in Sterically Hindered Amide Coupling

21 Dec 2015

It comes as no surprise to those with a background in organic or medicinal chemistry that one of the most important and often-overlooked synthetic transformations is the formation of amide bonds.

Amide linkages are one of the most prolific moieties in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and biologically active molecules. However, despite their prevalence there remain synthetic challenges, as even the simplest amides can be difficult to make.

A group at the University of Southern Denmark led by Prof. Trond Ulven has developed a protocol for amide coupling through in situ formation of acyl fluorides.

Initially, the researchers were working toward the synthesis of a molecular inhibitor for the free fatty acid receptor 2 (FFA2/GPR43), which has recently generated some interest as a target for treating various metabolic disorders.

While attempting the synthesis of an intermediate, coupling between their sterically hindered and sensitive carboxylic acid with an electron deficient and hindered amide understandably led to unsatisfactory results using standard coupling procedures.

Given the multiple steps required to generate both intermediates, the group decided to explore alternative methods to solve their problem. Indeed, acyl fluorides proved to be ideal as they behave like activated esters due to the unique nature of the carbonyl-fluoride bond while also minimizing steric hindrance between the two coupling partners.

Literature protocols are available for the generation of acyl fluorides and there are disadvantages associated with some. In recent years however, a number of alternative fluorinating agents have been reported that are capable of generating the acyl fluoride in situ under mild reaction conditions.

Prof. Ulven’s group was able to further improve the efficiency of this methodology by utilizing an alternative fluorinating agent, BTFFH, which is normally used in solid-phase peptide synthesis. This reagent reduces byproduct formation observed with reagents such as DAST, Deoxo-Fluor and XtalFluor-E. High conversions and isolated yields were obtained as a result and Ulven’s method was also successfully applied to amide coupling reactions previously reported as low yielding.

There is still a need for chemists to develop better ways to synthesize complex amide-containing structures without the need for external reagents. In the meantime, solutions such as these overcome synthetic challenges and are critical to further development and understanding in organic reaction design.

To find out more see:

A protocol for amide bond formation with electron deficient amines and sterically hindered substrates
Maria E. Due-Hansen, Sunil K. Pandey, Elisabeth Christiansen, Rikke Andersen, Steffen V. F. Hansen and Trond Ulven
DOI: 10.1039/C5OB02129D

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Dr Keith Stubbs joins Advisory Board

02 Dec 2015

We are pleased to announce that Dr Keith Stubbs, University of Western Australia, has recently joined the Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry Advisory Board.

Dr Keith Stubbs completed his undergraduate and PhD studies at UWA, followed by a two year post-doctoral position at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. He currently is an ARC Future Fellow.

His research group mainly focusses on carbohydrate research ranging from new therapeutic targets against antibiotic and herbicide resistance to tools to study carbohydrate-processing enzymes, as well as on microfluidics as a new technique in organic synthesis.

Selection of his most recent publications:

Gaining insight into the catalysis by GH20 lacto-N-biosidase using small molecule inhibitors and structural analysis (Open Access)
Chem. Commun., 2015, 51, 15008-15011. DOI: 10.1039/C5CC05494J, Communication

An interactive database to explore herbicide physicochemical properties
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2015, 13, 5586-5590. DOI: 10.1039/C5OB00469A, Communication

A simple and robust preparation of N-acetylindoxyls: precursors for indigogenic substrates
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2015, 13, 905,-908. DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02248C, Paper

Photoredox catalysis under shear using thin film vortex microfluidics
Chem. Commun., 2015, 51, 11041-11044. DOI: 10.1039/C5CC02153G, Communication

Thin film microfluidic synthesis of fluorescent highly substituted pyridines
Green Chem., 2014, 16, 3450-3453. DOI: 10.1039/C4GC00881B, Communication

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Archive for the ‘News’ Category