Chemistry tools on the web

Hello....

This latest Blog posting, as the title may suggest, contains some, hopefully, useful tools and resources that are available to the synthetic chemist over the internet. By that I don't mean Linkedin, FB or any other website you may care to browse during your coffee break (I don't want to know...) but useful tools such as common nmr chemical shifts of solvents, boiling point calculators and the like, the sort of thing we used to look up in text books (remember those?) the longer term aim of this will be to get a collection of useful links on our web site to provide a "one stop" resource for useful "stuff."

If anyone would like to suggest links to include, please email me.

Anyway, before we get to that, a few news items and chemistry highlights that I've stumbled across in the last couple of months since my last blog.

Conformetrix, who use their novel NMR based technique to determine extremely accurate 3D structures to help develop  proprietary drugs against therapeutically important targets, recently announced their first collaborative agreement with AstraZeneca, more on this story can be found here. Good news and smiles all round as one of my ex colleagues is working there (Conformetrix, not AZ obviously) and he was probably looking more like Ricky Gervais than ever on receipt of the news!!

Some other ex colleagues have started up Reach Separations, based at BioCity in Nottingham, they specialise in a range of separation services using both HPLC and SFC, with a wealth of experience in analytical and preparative chromatography both chiral and achiral, worth giving them a shout if you've got a chromatography need, good luck guys!!

Some chemistry now, nice bit of flow chem from Kupracz et al who've developed the first telescoped protocol for preparing vinyl azides from the corresponding alkenes in flow. They've employed two functionalized polymers serving as packed-bed materials inside the reactor, then gone on to show that the copper-catalyzed vinyl triazole formation from these vinyl azides in the presence of alkynes is possible using elemental copper as an inductively heatable material avoiding the use of iodine azide, which is a good thing!

The guys have out it all on video so you can get a better feel for the kit used to carry out the chemistry, nice panaoramic shot of the Uni too.....

Further flow highlights come from our friends at Cambridge Uni and Microsaic, who've just published some work on using MS monitoring in flow, analytics in continuous processing will be something of a growth area in the next few years I think, particularly if people can "close the loop" (pun fully intended) and generate the next experiment based on analytical data.

Useful conversion of thiols into sulphonyl chlorides from  Hojat Veisi of Payame Noor University using NCS, nice, mild way of generating these useful intermediates.

OK, now onto the resources bit, I've put together a few links to some web resources for Chemists, as i said in the intro, I would like to grow this into a feature on the Asynt web site so any additional links you think would be useful to others, please share.

Boiling point conversion wizard

TLC Stain recipes

Cooling bath recipes

NMR Shift finder wizard

NMR chemical shift tables

NMR spectra of common compounds

Molecular weight calculator (including MS isotope pattern)

Experimental procedures

Protecting groups

Lab techniques, tips and tricks

ChemSpider, literature overview

I think that's about it for this issue, happy surfing!

Toodlepip!

Steve

It's been a while.....

Hello again everyone, it's been a while since my last blog posting which is probably a reflection on how busy I've been lately and also partly due to the amount of sport on TV at the moment! With the Euro's and the upcoming Olympics, this blog has a bit of a sport theme.

First up are the guys at Warwick University with the RSC and IBM, who have synthesised and imaged "Olympicene" a five ringed structure that resembles the Olympic symbol, watch out the IOC don't come asking for royalties!

David Fox, of Warwick Uni comments further, "Alongside the scientific challenge involved in creating olympicene in a laboratory, there’s some serious practical reasons for working with molecules like this. The compound is related to single-layer graphite, also known as graphene, and is one of a number of related compounds which potentially have interesting electronic and optical properties. For example these types of molecules may offer great potential for the next generation of solar cells and high-tech lighting sources such as LEDs.”


More info on this work can be found here and in the video below.....

Continuing with the Olympic theme, I was at Loughborough Uni the other day for a meeting, security was very tight as it's the home of Team GB and the Japanese team which prompted one wag to ask me if I'd managed to get in OK and wondered if I'd been mistaken for one of the athletes? Said wag shall remain nameless (Steve C).....revenge will be mine!!


The Olympics has also provided a use for the old GSK labs at Harlow, which is being used to test all the samples from the athletes for performance enhancing drugs, good to see such a fantastic facility getting used at last, more can be found in the video tour below...

Pity the same couldn't be said for my old stomping ground at AZ Charnwood, which has been taken over by a plastics recycling firm, more on that story can be found here.


On to football now,interesting feature below which explains the chemistry that goes into the modern football.

Not sure we should trouble Rooney with this information but perhaps stick with the simpler instruction of sticking it in the onion bag! As I am writing this prior to the England Italy game, hopefully he will have managed to do just that!

That's about it for this edition, just a quick message to anyone who is around Nottingham this coming friday, a range of East Midlands based scientists will be conducting field trials of commercial batch fermented products from 7:00 onwards, usual place, email me if you'd like to be part of this exciting study!

Toodlepip!

Steve

Drugs, eggs and flow chemistry!!

I saw an interesting article from the "Drug Baron" recently which discusses how Medicinal Chemistry strategies may be partially to blame for the lack of new drugs coming to market. The prevalence of C-C bond couplings leading to bigger and flatter molecules, exploring the same molecular space, the article goes on to discuss how smaller more "3-D" structures could open up new areas of molecular space to explore, read more from the Baron here

If you do want to make some more flat molecules, there's a nice Palladium catalysed, microwave assisted, one pot synthesis of substituted isoquinolines, furopyridines, and thienopyridines from ortho-bromoarylaldehydes and terminal alkynes with ammonium acetate, convenient way to make some core scaffolds maybe? Available in the latest JOC

Talking of drug discovery, it was interesting to note that UCB and Oxford University are collaborating in a £3.6m Neuroscience project, particularly as recent years have seen a decline in big Pharma's involvement in this area, Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, said: “This is an exciting new partnership and I am eager to see the research that results. Partnerships between industry and academia will have an increasingly prominent role to play in the development of new drugs, therapies and medical technologies.

A further article on Academia/Pharma collaboration can be found in Dug Discovery today which describes the "open innovation" model between the German Cancer Research Center and Bayer HealthCare

Closer to home, there was good news for the East Midlands this week with the announcement of the next phase of the Leicester Science Park which seems to include building a Supermarket on site, bit strange but at least the scientists would be able to do their shopping at lunchtime, read more here

Other interesting events in the East Midlands include the Loughborough University Research Day next Wednesday and the Sygnature official lab opening at BioCity next Friday, both events yours truly will be attending!!

On to some chemistry now, Steve Ley's group has put another interesting FlowChemistry video on Beilstein TV, this one describes the preparation of a triphenylphosphine monolithic reagent and its application to the Appel reaction. The active monolith generates brominated products from the corresponding alcohols in excellent yields and high purity with no requirement for further off-line purification.

Other highlights this month include the use of egg shells as a feed material for plastics synthesis, chemists in Andy Abbott's group hope to use the waste shells to extract glycosaminoglycans (GAGs),  GAGs are used in numerous biomedical applications and could prove useful in the pharmaceutical industry, read more about the project here and see some of those involved looking very serious below

Well that's about it for this month, as usual, any ideas for inclusion in next month's blog or comments on this one, please get in touch via email

Toodlepip!

Steve

Drug Discovery past and present

This month's blog has a distinct "drug discovery" feel to it, the first few items anyway.
I was reminded recently of the story behind the discovery of Intal and the role of Roger Altounyan in that discovery.For anyone not familiar with the story, great strides were made by Roger when he tested  compounds on himself rather than the guinea pigs they had been using and he soon found that some of the compounds, if dosed before exposure to the allergen, actually helped to prevent the onset of an asthma attack. Roger Altounyan also had a large input into the design of the delivery of the drug, he explains more in the video below.

Fast forward to 2012 and I have discussed the Pharma/Academia model of drug discovery before but I was at the University of Sussex the other day and discovered that one of the medicinal chemists there is writing a blog. You can see Michael Paradowski's blog here, a great read for anyone who has an interest in synthetic organic chemistry and medicinal chemistry.

Another little gem I have found is the story of Molly the Molecule, an interesting tale of a potential drug told from the molecule's perspective, Molly's tale can be found here.

On to some chemistry and Kim and Lee have published this neat tandem, one pot synthesis of functionalised indoles from nitriles, several examples in the paper.

I promised to keep you updated with the Wavecraft launch, this is a continuous process microwave reactor, launched ealier this month, much more detail can be found on the Wavecraft website but there's a nice colourful thermal image video that demonstrates the uniform nature of the heating  in the reactor below. Anyone who wants more info on this can contact me at steve.brough@asynt.com.

On to education now and the RSC have published a great, interactive visual elements periodic table, great for any budding chemists out there, show your kids, they might learn something!

Last, but certainly not least, Health and Safety, those of you who know me will realise that it's something I take very seriously, so I was delighted to receive the video below of the correct way to dispose of large quantities of Sodium.

This was sent in by an avid but shy blog reader who didn't wish to be credited with the find but if I were to say he's a Crystal Palace fan who likes tank tops, that might narrow it down a little! No prizes but answers to me at Steve.brough@asynt.com or, if you'd like to suggest a link or anything vaguely chemistry related, get in touch.

Toodles...

Steve

Spring is nigh.

I'll start this edition with a couple of shameless plugs, firstly to advertise the one day meeting, Advances in Synthesis and Medicinal Chemistry 1 May 2012 @ BioPark, Welwyn Garden City, this looks a good meeting and places are still available, more info can be found here.


Second plug is for the newly formed UKASF Linkedin group, the UKASF (UK Automated Synthesis Forum) has been going for quite a few years now and as the name suggests, the group is interested in new technology related to synthetic chemistry, organising an annual meeting with a mixture of vendor presentations, user perspectives and company profiles. The Linkedin group will hopefully prove to be a useful resource for chemists to share experiences and discuss new developments in technology, you can join here.


So, on to the chemistry, I was forwarded a great link this week to a video of Steve Ley giving a tour and overview of the ITC lab at Cambridge University, you can take the video tour here and see where all the publications come from!


Continuing in academic circles, I see that King's College are launching a new chemistry course this year, Chemistry with Biomedicine a brief description of the course is below:


"A totally new Chemistry course, designed to meet the rigorous standards of the Royal Society for Chemistry and delivered by chemists working within a very broad range of biomedical and health applications."


Not to be outdone in creating courses tailored to modern day industry needs, UCL have the MSc in Drug Design, more on which can be found here.


A web site I have mentioned before, organic reaction.com is a great chemistry resource, well worth having a look at and very smartly laid out, an example is the screen shot of the Protecting Group page below.

Finally for this issue, I'd like to share a video showing the use of filter vials to protect your LC/MS instruments, I'm a bit surprised these aren't more widely used given the excellent protection they offer.

As always, any ideas for the Blog or comments, get in touch at steve.brough@asynt.com


Toodlepip!


Steve

What a week that was!

Well it's been quite a week in the chemistry world and not really a good one. Following a few days after the announcement that AZ were funding academic drug discovery partnerships the company really put it's money where it's mouth is, announcing massive cuts accross the board including site closures at Montreal and R&D in Södertälje also exiting CVGI at Alderley Park. It was interesting that patients got little or no mention in any of the media coverage I've seen, just shareholders.

David Phillips from the RSC comments more on the woes of AZ and big Pharma on the BBC news here.

I was at Alderley Park and Macclesfield on friday and while it was great to see some of my ex Charnwood buddies, obviously under the circumstances it was all a bit subdued.

I'm not entirely sure how this new business model will work, it sounds all well and good on paper but who controls the IP? Who and how will projects be managed? Will the dreaded "metrics" creep into academia, stifling innovation and creativity? I guess we'll find out in the next few years.

Bad news of a different nature as York University Chemistry department had to evacuate 400 students and staff after a fire last thursday, more here.

One of the students interviewed came up with the classic post fire comment, "I was doing a couple of reactions to find anti-cancer agents but they'll have boiled over by now."
Thankfully no-one was hurt during the blaze.

Earlier in the week I had the pleasure of visiting Bristol University, which wasn't on fire, and had the chance to look round their teaching labs, very impressive indeed, better than many Pharma companies in fact, thanks to to Steve Croker for showing me round. Also at Bristol I learned about their use of interactive web tools, the Bristol ChemLabS Dynamic Lab manual to give the undergraduates a chance to "make mistakes" before they get into the lab, I think this is a great idea and one that should be used more widely in schools to get kids interested in chemistry.

Professor Tim Gallagher, Head of Chemistry explains more below.

Finally for this week's blog, I'd like to point you in the direction of a collaboration announced two weeks ago between Uniqsis and Wavecraft, enabling microwave reactions to be successfully carried out in flow, one of the main features is the ability to measure actual temperatures in the microwave reactor, something that's not proved easy to do over the years in microwave synthesis. More information can be found here and I will provide more details as and when I get them.

As always, any suggestions for the blog, send them to me at steve.brough@asynt.com.

Toodle pip!

Steve

Happy New Year

So, 2012 already, I can't believe how quickly the last year has gone!
Already some positive industry news with the announcement that the former MSD site at Newhouse is going to become BioCity Scotland, a spokesman for the new venture commented that the “gifting” of the MSD facility in Lanarkshire has opened up more than 130,000 sq ft of purpose-built laboratories on a 23-acre site that could support “pre-clinical drug discovery and development by a range of independent, ambitious companies," other major Pharma companies with empty facilities should take note!
More on this story can be found here.

Continuing in a positive vein, the Technology Stategy Board, in conjunction with the TSB is to invest up to £5m in collaborative Research to encourage the development and commercialisation of sustainable manufacturing, more details, including how to apply can be found here.

A good example of such a sustainable collaboration comes from Loughborough University working with Cynar, Loughborough's Steve Christie said,  “We are delighted to be able to play a part in the development of this exciting new technology. We will be analysing the chemicals involved, identifying them and trying to understand more about their chemical mechanism. This will enable Cynar to optimise their systems. Over time we will also look at other more difficult plastics to see if they can be used in similar recycling processes.”  see the full article for more information.

Other highlights I've come across this week include the organic reaction website which contains a wealth of resources, from Medicinal Chemistry lectures, patent news to a great range of synthesis procedures with experimental details and links to the source patents, an example is shown below for parallel reductive amination procedure from Pfizer.

 

A solution of amine compound (0.19 M in dichloroethane, 400 μL, 75 μmol) was placed in an 8 mL vial and treated with the aldehyde component (0,25 M solution so dichloroethane, 300 μL, 75 μmol). Sodium triacetoxyborohydride (225 μmol) was added to each vial, which was then capped and shaken at 30°C for 16 hours. Solvent was removed using a SpeedVac system, and the crude products were purified by preparative HPLC.

Patent reference: WO2010058333 (Pfizer)

Another interesting paper is from the process chemists at AZ in conjunction with PhosphonicS describing the use of PhosphonicS prepacked metal scavenging cartridges in the Pilot Plant, more details can be found here.

Finally for this issue, when you're designing a new analytical instrument, thoughts inevitably turn to bees, well that's what the guys in the video below have done, they've "trained" the bees to smell residuals from explosives and narcotics, triggering an alarm, absolutely amazing stuff!

Toodlepip!


Steve