Speakers (l to r): Professors Erick Carreira of the ETH; Barbara Imperiali, MIT; Peter Sadler, University of Edinburgh; Tom Simpson, University of Bristol; Anna Maria Papini, University of Florence; Gerard Canters, Leiden University
At the recent fifth annual Centre for Synthesis and Chemical Biology (CSCB) symposium 200 delegates heard plenary lectures from six distinguished speakers describing current research at the interface between chemistry and biology including designing new anti-HIV agents and developing a test for multiple sclerosis. They also viewed posters reflecting the breadth of CSCB research activity in this field.
Prizes were awarded to Dr Guillaume Anquetin (UCD), Juliet Cotter (UCD) and Catriona O'Meara (DIT) for their poster presentations.
Dr Guillaume Anquetin's poster was entitled Synthesis of Natural Product Analogs for Angiogenesis and Cancer. Angiogenesis is a fundamental step in the transition of tumours from a dormant to a malignant state. Guillaume, who works in the group of CSCB investigator Professor Paul Murphy, UCD School of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, has developed a new synthetic route which promises to give access to novel anti-cancer and anti-angiogenesis based therapeutics.
Poster winners from UCD: Dr Guillaume Anquetin and Juliet Cotter
Juliet Cotter, a postgraduate student under the supervision of CSCB investigator, Dr Donal O'Shea, UCD School of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, won a prize for her poster describing Vinyl Lithiation of cis-Stilbenes and Directed Vinyl-lithiation of an Unsymmetrical cis-Stilbene. Organolithium species are ubiquitous in synthetic chemistry and this methodology has far-reaching applications in the preparation of complex molecules.
Investigation of a metal complexing route to form arene trans-Dihydrodiols was the title of the poster which won a prize for Catriona O'Meara who works in the Dublin Institute of Technology in collaboration with Professor Rory More O'Ferrall, UCD School of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. These metabolites are formed in the body by the action of enzymes but are also of significant value industrially for the formation of enantiopure products. Catriona's work is focused on developing a viable scaleable route to these compounds.
Plenary lectures were given by Professor Tom Simpson (University of Bristol), Professor Barbara Imperiali (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Professor Peter Sadler (University of Edinburgh), Professor Erick Carreira (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich) Professor Anna Maria Papini (University of Florence) and Professor Gerard Canters (Leiden Institute of Chemistry, The Netherlands).
