Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry Blog

Meet the team at ESOC 2015

01 Jun 2015

Next month I will be attending the 19th European Symposium on Organic Chemistry (ESOC 2015) held in Lisbon, Portugal, 12 – 16 July, and if you too are in attendance, I’d love to meet you there!

Dr Marie Cote, Oganic & Biomolecular Chemistry Deputy Editor

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.

OBC, ChemComm, Chemical Science and MedChemComm are delighted to be media partners of the conference, and there’s lots to look forward to again on this 19th edition of the symposium:

Prof. Peter Chen (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) will be presenting the Patai Rappoport Lecture 2015,
Prof. Christina Moberg (KTH School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Sweden) is the recipient of the 2014 EuCheMs Lecture Award, and
Prof. Nuno Maulide (University of Vienna, Austria) will present the Young Researcher Award Lecture

Plenary lectures at the symposium will be given by :

Prof. Carlos A. M. Afonso (University of Lisbon, Portugal)
Prof. Ernest Giralt (Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Spain)
Prof. Guy Lloyd-Jones (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Prof. Ilan Marek (Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel)
Prof. Peter H. Seeberger (Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany)
Prof. Timothy M. Swager (MIT, USA)
Prof. F. Dean Toste (UC Berkeley, USA)
Prof. Dirk Trauner (University of Munich, Germany)
Prof. Helma Wennemers (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)

Access the full scientific programme

Will you be presenting a poster?

ChemComm, OBC and MedChemComm will each be awarding a Poster Prize at ESOC 2015

I look forward to meeting many of you in Lisbon!

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Introducing OBC Associate Editor Prof. Christian Hackenberger

27 May 2015

By James Anson.

Professor Christian Hackenberger has joined Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry as an Associate Editor. We are delighted to welcome him to the team and look forward to working with him over the coming years.

Christian completed his graduate studies with Prof. Sam Gellman (Univeristy Wisconsin-Madison) and his doctoral work with Prof. Carsten Bolm at the Rhine-Westphalia Institute of Technology Aachen. After his postdoctoral stay in the group of Prof. Barbara Imperiali at MIT he started his own lab at the Freie Universität Berlin as a FCI-Liebig-Scholar and Emmy Noether Fellow in 2005. In 2012, he accepted a position as the Leibniz–Humboldt Professor for Chemical Biology to the Leibniz Institut for Molecular Pharmacology and the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.

Christian’s research interests focus around studying the biology, function and pharmacological potency of naturally and unnaturally modified peptides and proteins and include:

Development of ligation and modification strategies for the synthesis of functional proteins
Bioorthogonal Staudinger phosphite and phosphonite reactions
Labeling strategies for antibody ‐ and nanobody conjugates
Intracellular delivery and targeting
Protein and peptide PEGylation
Functional investigation of the Alzheimer‐relevant Tau protein
Engineering of protein‐based multivalent scaffolds
Metabolic oligosaccharide engineering

On starting his new role as Associate Editor for Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry Christian said:

“I am delighted to act as an associate editor to OBC. Without a question I am very happy about the nomination from the editorial board, especially because I published my very first independent paper back in 2006 in OBC. This new job is both a privilege and an honor to serve the community and work with the editorial team of the Royal Society of Chemistry“

Submit a manuscript for Christian to handle

Visit Christian’s homepage

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Organic chemistry’s complexity conundrum

26 May 2015

By James Anson.

Organic synthesis is often heralded as more art than science. An organic chemist’s eye for complexity, breaking down structures into simpler forms, is honed and nurtured over decades. But, is it possible to take this seemingly intangible skill and quantify it, putting a simple number on how complex a chemical structure actually is?

Process chemists Martin Eastgate and Jun Li, at Bristol-Myers Squibb (B-MS) in the US have developed a tool to do just that, generating a unique index they have termed a molecule’s ‘current complexity’, which also accounts for changes over time due to the impact of new technologies.

Read the full Chemistry World story»

Read the original Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry article – it’s free to access until 2nd July:
Current complexity: a tool for assessing the complexity of organic molecules
Jun Lia and Martin D. Eastgate
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2015, DOI: 10.1039/C5OB00709G

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Agri Innovation 2015

26 Mar 2015

By James Anson.

Join us on 22 April at the Society of Chemical Industry in London for Agri Innovation 2015: Emerging Technologies in Crop Research

This one-day meeting aims to provide an update on several areas of crop research, including identifying target proteins for crop protection ingredients, the synthesis of new crop protection agents and understanding the mechanisms of resistance and immunity in plants and insects. If you are working in organic synthesis, chemical biology or biochemistry in relation to crop science, this meeting will provide an opportunity to catch up on the latest developments. Speakers from academia and industry from across Europe will come together to present and discuss the latest developments in this area.

The meeting is jointly run by the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Society of Chemical Industry Agrisciences Group and AGRI-net, the agriscience chemical biology network. For more details and to register, please visit the website.

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HOT Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry articles

20 Mar 2015

By Rosalind Searle.

The following Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry articles have all been recommened by the reviewers of the articles as being particularly interesting or particularly significant research. These have all been made free to access until 20th April 2015. The order they appear in the list holds no special meaning or ranking.

Silver catalysed decarboxylative alkylation and acylation of pyrimidines in aqueous media
Wen-Peng Mai, Bin Sun, Li-Qin You, Liang-Ru Yang, Pu Mao, Jin-Wei Yuan, Yong-Mei Xiao and Ling-Bo Qu
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02524E

10.1039/C4OB02524E

Templating carbohydrate-functionalised polymer-scaffolded dynamic combinatorial libraries with lectins
Clare S. Mahon, Martin A. Fascione, Chadamas Sakonsinsiri, Tom E. McAllister, W. Bruce Turnbull and David A. Fulton
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02587C

10.1039/C4OB02587C

Oxidative asymmetric umpolung alkylation of Evans’ β-ketoimides using dialkylzinc nucleophiles
Tom A. Targel, Jayprakash N. Kumar, O. Svetlana Shneider, Sukanta Bar, Natalia Fridman, Shimon Maximenko and Alex M. Szpilman
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02601B

10.1039/C4OB02601B

Cyclopropanation using flow-generated diazo compounds
Nuria M. Roda, Duc N. Tran, Claudio Battilocchio, Ricardo Labes, Richard J. Ingham, Joel M. Hawkins and Steven V. Ley
DOI: 10.1039/C5OB00019J, Communication

10.1039/C5OB00019J

Supramolecular control of transition metal complexes in water by a hydrophobic cavity: a bio-inspired strategy
Olivia Bistri and Olivia Reinaud
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02511C

10.1039/C4OB02511C

Cyclopenta[b]naphthalene cyanoacrylate dyes: synthesis and evaluation as fluorescent molecular rotors
Laura S. Kocsis, Kristyna M. Elbel, Billie A. Hardigree, Kay M. Brummond, Mark A. Haidekker and Emmanuel A. Theodorakis
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02563F

10.1039/C4OB02563F

Chiral nanostructuring of multivalent macrocycles in solution and on surfaces
Marco Caricato, Arnaud Delforge, Davide Bonifazi, Daniele Dondi, Andrea Mazzanti and Dario Pasini
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02643H

10.1039/C4OB02643H

Physicochemical studies on the copper(II) binding by glycated collagen telopeptides
Meder Kamalov, Paul W. R. Harris, Christian G. Hartinger, Gordon M. Miskelly, Garth J. S. Cooper and Margaret A. Brimble
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02536A
Regiodivergent Lewis base-promoted O- to C-carboxyl transfer of furanyl carbonates
Craig D. Campbell, Caroline Joannesse, Louis C. Morrill, Douglas Philp and Andrew D. Smith
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02629B

10.1039/C4OB02536A

Total syntheses of five uvacalols: structural validation of uvacalol A, uvacalol B and uvacalol C and disproval of the structures of uvacalol E and uvacalol G
Adiyala Vidyasagar and Kana M. Sureshan
10.1039/C4OB02663 10.1039/C4OB02663B B

Direct biosynthetic cyclization of a distorted paracyclophane highlighted by double isotopic labelling of L-tyrosine
Alexandre Ear, Séverine Amand, Florent Blanchard, Alain Blond, Lionel Dubost, Didier Buisson and Bastien Nay
DOI: 10.1039/C5OB00114E

10.1039/C5OB00114E

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HOT Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry articles

16 Feb 2015

By Rosalind Searle.

The following Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry articles have all been recommened by the reviewers of the articles as being particularly interesting or particularly significant research. These have all been made free to access until 16th March 2015. The order they appear in the list holds no special meaning or ranking.

E. coli cells expressing the Baeyer–Villiger monooxygenase ‘MO14’ (ro03437) from Rhodococcus jostii RHA1 catalyse the gram-scale resolution of a bicyclic ketone in a fermentor
Benjamin D. Summers, Muhiadin Omar, Thomas O. Ronson, Jared Cartwright, Michael Lloyd and Gideon Grogan
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB01441C, Paper
From themed collection In Celebration of Richard Taylor’s 65th Birthday

C4OB01441C GA

Synthesis of unsaturated phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphates and the effects of substrate unsaturation on SopB phosphatase activity
Samuel Furse, LokHang Mak, Edward W. Tate, Richard H. Templer, Oscar Ces, Rüdiger Woscholski and Piers R. J. Gaffney
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02258K, Paper

C4OB02258K GA

A microwave-assisted multicomponent synthesis of substituted 3,4-dihydroquinazolinones
Marc Y. Stevens, Krzysztof Wieckowski, Peng Wu, Rajiv T. Sawant and Luke R. Odell
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02417F, Paper

C4OB02417F GA

Near-instant surface-selective fluorogenic protein quantification using sulfonated triarylmethane dyes and fluorogen activating proteins
Qi Yan, Brigitte F. Schmidt, Lydia A. Perkins, Matharishwan Naganbabu, Saumya Saurabh, Susan K. Andreko and Marcel P. Bruchez
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02309A, Paper

C4OB02309A GA

Bacterial patterning controlled by light exposure
Willem A. Velema, Jan Pieter van der Berg, Wiktor Szymanski, Arnold J. M. Driessen and Ben L. Feringa
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02483D, Communication

C4OB02483D GA

Exploring the scope of the isothiourea-mediated synthesis of dihydropyridinones
Pei-Pei Yeh, David S. B. Daniels, Charlene Fallan, Eoin Gould, Carmen Simal, James E. Taylor, Alexandra M. Z. Slawin and Andrew D. Smith
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02408G, Paper

C4OB02408G GA

Energy transfer between amphiphilic porphyrin polymer shells and upconverting nanoparticle cores in water-dispersible nano-assemblies
T. Wu, S. Kaur and N. R. Branda
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02401J, Paper

C4OB02401J GA

Copper-catalyzed oxidative alkenylation of thioethers via Csp3–H functionalization
Hao Cao, Dong Liu, Chao Liu, Xinquan Hu and Aiwen Lei
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02564D, Communication

Volatiles from nineteen recently genome sequenced actinomycetes
Christian A. Citron, Lena Barra, Joachim Wink and Jeroen S. Dickschat
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02609H, Paper

C4OB02609H GA

Functional chromatographic technique for natural product isolation
Eric C. Lau, Damian J. Mason, Nicole Eichhorst, Pearce Engelder, Celestina Mesa, E. M. Kithsiri Wijeratne, G. M. Kamal B. Gunaherath, A. A. Leslie Gunatilaka, James J. La Clair and Eli Chapman
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02292K, Communication

C4OB02292K GA

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OBC call for papers: Multivalent Biomolecular Recognition themed issue

09 Feb 2015

By Marie Cote, Deputy Editor.

Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry is delighted to announce a call for paper for its latest themed issue on: Multivalent Biomolecular Recognition

Guest Editors: Prof. Mihail Barboiu (Institut Européen des Membranes, France), Prof. Olof Ramström (KTH – Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden) and Prof. Stéphane Vincent (University of Namur, Belgium)

Submission Deadline: 15^th July 2015

From the guest-editors:

The understanding and control of multivalent biomolecular interactions has become one of the key frontiers of chemistry and biology. This issue will cover important findings and advances in the field, in order to:
1. Develop functional sugar decorated nanoplatforms (nanoparticles, nanostructured surfaces, vesicles, microarrays, etc.).
2. Understand the biomolecular mechanisms by exploring their synergistic adaptive interactions with biomolecules, in order to accurately control the chemical/biological responses.

The inspiration for this issue comes partly from our membership of the EU-funded Dynamic Interactive Nanosystems ITN Marie Curie DYNANO Network (see http://www.dynano.eu ). We hope that colleagues from the Network will participate but are also very welcoming to contributors who have not (yet) joined our association.

Research in OBC is published as communications (for urgent work – up to 5 pages in length) or full papers. There is also the opportunity to write a Perspective or Review article for the issue, and if you would be interested in this please let us know. All submissions will be subject to rigorous peer review to meet the usual high standards of OBC.

The deadline for submissions to the themed issue is 15^th July 2015, although submissions before this date are of course welcomed.

Manuscripts can be submitted using the RSC’s online submissions service. Please clearly mark that the manuscript is submitted for the themed issue on ‘Multivalent Biomolecular Recognition’.

Please would you inform the editorial office by e-mail as soon as possible if you plan to submit to the issue and whether your contribution will be original research or a review-type article. We would like to have a list of authors who intend to contribute as soon as possible.

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Meet the OBC team – See where and when you can meet us in 2015

09 Feb 2015

By Rosalind Searle.

A selection of conferences the journal will be attending in 2015.

The Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry team will be attending a number of conferences in 2015 and we would be delighted to meet you there.

We’re also the team behind OBC’s sister journals MedChemComm, Natural Product Reports, and Molecular BioSystems, 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.

Spring

National symposium on Chemical Biology 18-19 February 2015, Mysore, India. Meet Deeksha Gupta.

Directing Biosynthesis IV 25 – 27th March 2015, Norwich, UK. Meet Marie Cote.

MedChemComm, 27-30 April 2015, Hyderabad, India. Meet Deeksha Gupta.

Grassmere Heterocyclic meeting 7th – 11th May, 2015, Grassmere, UK. Meet James Anson.

Summer

Royal Society of Chemistry Organic Chemistry Symposium Series 1st – 5th June 2015, Sendai, Tokyo, Kyoto, Japan. Meet Rich Kelly

American Peptide Symposium 20th – 25th June 2015, Orlando, Florida. Meet Rich Kelly.

ISMSC 28th June – 2nd July 2015, Strasbourg, France. Meet Marie Cote.

7th International Conference on Green and Sustainable Chemistry, July 5 – 8^th, Tokyo, Japan. Meet Hiromitsu Urakami.

ESOC 2015 12th – 16th July 2015, Lisbon, Portugal. Meet Marie Cote.

RSC Organic Synthesis 20th – 23rd July 2015, Cambridge, UK. Meet James Anson.

9^th CCS National Organic Chemistry conference, 31st July to 3rd August 2015, Changchun, China. Meet Guanqun Song.

9^th National Chemical Biology conference, August, Tianjin, China. Meet Guanqun Song.

250th ACS National Meeting & Exposition 16th – 20th August 2015, Boston, USA.

25^th International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry Conference (August 23-28) in Santa Barbara, USA. Meet Jennifer Lee.

Autumn

18th RSC/SCI medicinal chemistry conference 13th – 16th September 2015, Cambridge, UK. Meet James Anson.

26th Symposium on Physical Organic Chemistry, 24 – 26th September, Ehime, Japan. Meet Hiromitsu Urakami.

13th International Kyoto Conference on New Aspects of Organic Chemistry , 9th – 13th November, Kyoto, Japan. Meet Hiromitsu Urakami.

Tateshina Conference, 13th – 15th November, Tateshina, Japan. Meet Hiromitsu Urakami.

BMOS-16 15th – 19th November 2015, Buzios, Brazil. Meet Rich Kelly.

Winter

Pacifichem 15th – 20th December 2015, Hawaii, USA. Meet Marie Cote.

Let us know if you are planning on attending any of these meetings, as we would be happy to meet you there!

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New Editorial Board Chair

21 Jan 2015

By James Anson.

Introducing the new Editorial Board Chair for Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, Professor Andrei Yudin

We are delighted to announce that Professor Andrei Yudin has become the Chair of the Editorial Board for Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry.

For the past 3 years Andrei has been handling manuscripts for OBC as an Associate Editor, but with his move to his new role he will no longer be handling manuscripts himself.

The previous Chair, Professor Jeff Bode, passed over the reins to Andrei at the begining of 2015, and this brings his time on the OBC Editorial Board to a close. Professor Paolo Scrimin‘s time on the Editorial Board has also drew to a close at the end of 2014. We would all like to thank both Jeff and Paolo for the many years of service and the invaluable contributions they have made in helping to guide the journal.

About Andrei:

Professor Andrei Yudin obtained his B.Sc. degree at Moscow State University and his Ph.D. degree at the University of Southern California under the direction of Professors G. K. Surya Prakash and George A. Olah. He subsequently took up a postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Professor K. Barry Sharpless at the Scripps Research Institute. In 1998, he started his independent career at the University of Toronto. He received early tenure, becoming an Associate Professor in 2002, and received an early promotion to the rank of a Full Professor in 2007.

Amongst Professor Yudin’s awards are the CSC Award in Combinatorial Chemistry, the 2004 Amgen New Faculty Award, the 2010 CSC Merck-Frosst Therapeutic Center Award, the 2010 Rutherford Medal of the Royal Society of Canada, the 2011 University of Toronto Inventor of the Year Award, and the 2015 Bernard Belleau Award in Medicinal Chemistry. Professor Yudin is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Andrei’s Homepage: http://www.chem.utoronto.ca/wp/yudinlab/

Andrei also maintains a science blog – Amphoteros – that aims to illuminate the ongoing synthetic and chemical biology efforts in his lab and to discuss general advances in science, both from the past and present.

Below is his blog following our Editorial Board meeting at the end of last year.

Some news from London

Posted on November 20, 2014

Over the past several days I have been in London, England, where I attended the Fall Board Meeting of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry. Richard Kelly, the Managing Editor of this RSC publication, has put this meeting together in the Mayfair district of London. Jeff Bode (ETH, Zurich) is stepping down as the Board Chairman and I will be taking over his responsibilities from January 2015. I have to tip my hat off to Jeff for his leadership over the past several years. I have thoroughly enjoyed my role of one of the Associate Editors. The difference now will be that I am no longer going to handle manuscripts, but will instead oversee some strategic areas for growth and improvement. I think this will be very exciting. Earlier this week, I had a lot of fun together with Jeff as well as Ashraf Brik of Ben Gurion University, Margaret Brimble of the University of Aukland, Tony Davis of the University of Bristol, Jonathan Clayden of the University of Manchester, Pauline Chiu of the University of Hong Kong, and Paolo Scrimin of the University of Padova. Unfortunately, Jin-Quan Yu of Scripps was not able to make it to this meeting. Along with Margaret and I, Jin-Quan is one of OBC’s Associate Editors.

In terms of chemistry, I actually wanted to share something that relates to the work of Margaret Brimble (she flew in all the way from New Zealand to meet us). Margaret brought along some exciting news: NNZ-2566, a molecule developed as part of a collaboration between her lab and Neuren Pharma, was recently approved by the FDA, which has granted orphan drug designation to NNZ-2566 for treatment of Fragile X Syndrome. This tripeptide also demonstrates neuroprotective efficacy in models of traumatic brain injury such as concussion. Evidently, the U.S. Army is very interested in NNZ-2566, although not much is known about the mechanism of action of this exciting compound. What I found remarkable is that the tripeptide is orally bioavailable. The C-methyl proline residue makes this molecule considerably more stable than the corresponding non-methylated congener. The methyl group really “messes up” with the nearby amide bond, which apparently drives the logD down and improves the pharmacological profile of NNZ-2566. I have always thought that there is something special about C-methylproline…

http://www.neurenpharma.com/irm/content/nnz-2566-in-rett-syndrome.aspx?RID=330

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HOT Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry articles

15 Jan 2015

By Rosalind Searle.

The following Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry articles have all been recommened by the reviewers of the articles as being particularly interesting or particularly significant research. These have all been made free to access until 15th February 2015. The order they appear in the list holds no special meaning or ranking.

Cationic azacryptands as selective three-way DNA junction binding agents
Jana Novotna, Aurelien Laguerre, Anton Granzhan, Marc Pirrotta, Marie-Paule Teulade-Fichou and David Monchaud
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB01846J, Paper

C4OB01846J GA

Efficient merging of copper and photoredox catalysis for the asymmetric cross-dehydrogenative-coupling of alkynes and tetrahydroisoquinolines
Inna Perepichka, Soumen Kundu, Zoë Hearne and Chao-Jun Li
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02138J, Paper

C4OB02138J GA

A peptide topological template for the dispersion of [60]fullerene in water
S. Bartocci, D. Mazzier, A. Moretto and M. Mba
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02102A, Communication
From themed collection Supramolecular Chemistry in Water

C4OB02102A GA

6-Substituted 1,2-benzoxathiine-2,2-dioxides are isoform-selective inhibitors of human carbonic anhydrases IX, XII and VA
Muhammet Tanc, Fabrizio Carta, Andrea Scozzafava and Claudiu T. Supuran
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02155J, Communication

C4OB02155J GA

Artificial metalloenzymes for the diastereoselective reduction of NAD+ to NAD2H
Tommaso Quinto, Daniel Häussinger, Valentin Köhler and Thomas R. Ward
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02071E, Communication
From themed collection Supramolecular Chemistry in Water

C4OB02071E GA

Design and synthesis of fluorescent 7-deazaadenosine nucleosides containing π-extended diarylacetylene motifs
Sara De Ornellas, John M. Slattery, Robert M. Edkins, Andrew Beeby, Christoph G. Baumann and Ian J. S. Fairlamb
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02081B, Communication

C4OB02081B GA

One-pot quadruple/triple reaction sequence: a useful tool for the synthesis of natural products
K. Kashinath and D. Srinivasa Reddy
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02143F, Perspective

C4OB02143F GA

Indole-based novel small molecules for the modulation of bacterial signalling pathways
Nripendra Nath Biswas, Samuel K. Kutty, Nicolas Barraud, George M. Iskander, Renate Griffith, Scott A. Rice, Mark Willcox, David StC. Black and Naresh Kumar
DOI: 10.1039/C4OB02096K, Paper

C4OB02096K GA