Dithiodiketopiperazines or “DKP’s” is common motif that appears in various natural products. These natural products have been shown to display anti-viral or anti-tumor properties. Within the past two decades, an increasing number of natural products have been isolated containing a DKP core. Although synthetic strategy towards this core has been around since the 1960’s, there is still much innovation withing the area of DKP natural product total synthesis.

Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) development has seen recent improvement through employment of targeted conjugate synthesis strategies. Methods that optimize delivery of antibodies, linkers, and conjugated drug compounds have emerged. Through these methods, higher drug conjugation density, increased linker stability, and lower unconjugated antibody concentrations can be achieved. Dual conjugation, a process by which two different conjugated drugs can be delivered, has become attractive for increased ADC potency.

Prof. Lawrence describes his research as “...primarily focused on the total synthesis of natural products, exploring new strategies and concepts in chemical synthesis, and developing new synthetic methodology.”

Natural products are organic secondary metabolites produced by all forms of life. In their native environment, natural products mediate intra- and interspecies communication. Bioinhibitory activities of natural products make them medicinally attractive– majority of clinically used drugs and pharmaceuticals are or are derived from natural products. The Agarwal laboratory seeks to understand how gene encoded enzymes construct natural product organic structures starting from simple biologically available starting materials.

As part of the the Spring 2022 Organic Seminar series, on January 27^th from 11:10 am we will host a virtual seminar by three representatives from Pfizer’s medicinal chemistry team:

Heme is an essential cofactor required for numerous biological reactions in the vast majority of organisms, and its biosynthesis is a complex process. Three heme biosynthetic pathways have been identified, with the most recent being the coproporphyrin dependent (CPD) pathway. In the CPD pathway, coproporphyrinogen III is oxidized to coproporphyrin, followed by iron insertion into the tetrapyrrole, forming coproheme¹.

The demand of lithium-ion batteries is quickly increasing largely due to the increased production of electric vehicles.  This rise in battery production will lead to an equivalent rise in waste as these batteries are consumed and discarded.  Currently only about 5% of lithium-ion batteries are recycled¹.  This low level of recycling is in part due to the cost to recycle and the limitations of the current technologies available at an industrial scale.

Computational quantum chemistry can be used to gain insight into reactivity and simulate properties or spectra. However, conducting computational studies often requires using command line interfaces, which have a steep learning curve. A simpler alternative to command line interfaces is graphical user interfaces. Existing graphical interfaces are often insufficient to handle every task that one encounters during a computational study: building structures, setting up computations, viewing calculated properties, and creating publication-quality graphics.

Advances in mass spectrometry instrumentation and experimental design have led to significant inroads in the characterization of biological molecules like proteins and lipids, thus translating to new applications in the field of proteomics, lipidomics and structural biology. Ultraviolet photodissociation (UVPD) is a fast, higher energy ion activation mode that results in extensive and information fragmentation of molecules, and ion activation/dissociation can be accomplished using a single 5 ns laser pulse.

Graphene oxide quantum dots (GQDs) are a zero-dimensional (0D) nanomaterial of the carbon family that has attracted much attention in biomedical applications. Top-down and bottom-up approaches are used to synthesize GQDs.