New paper in Organic Letters

Our latest publication has appeared online in Organic Letters today. The paper describes the use of substituted vinylsulfonium salts in the synthesis of 6- and 7-membered heterocycles with high regioselectivity and high diastereoselectivity. Saturated heterocycles such as morpholines and piperazines are present in approx 21% or all small molecule drugs approved by the FDA. We expect that this work will be of particular interest to medicinal chemists in drug discovery programs. Well done everybody.

The paper can be viewed online (with a subscription) at:

Org Lett, article ASAP; DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.5b02516

The research was funded by EPSRC (Bristol Chemical Synthesis CDT), GSK, SFI and the EU Marie-Curie COFUND.

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PhD position has been filled.

The recently advertised PhD position has now been filled. More details to follow.

Welcome to our new researchers

We welcome Orla Patton, Mark Reihill and David Farrar to the group! All three will be undertaking their final year research projects in the group this year as part of their BSc degrees in ‘Chemistry’ or ‘Medicinal Chemistry’. We hope they enjoy their time in the group, and hope that their projects will be successful. The projects encompass the development of new synthetic methodologies, the investigation of mechanism, control of stereochemistry, and the synthesis of compounds for testing in biological assays.

Eoghan speaks at Gregynog

Eoghan presented some of the group’s research on organocatalytic glycosylations in a lecture at the Young Chemists’ Organic Synthesis Workshop in Gregynog, Wales, yesterday. This long running annual meeting is gathers synthetic chemists from the UK, Ireland and beyond for a vibrant 3-day meeting with lots of discussion. This year plenary lectures were given by Prof Ben Feringa (Netherlands) and Prof David Procter (Manchester). Congratulations also to our colleague Prof Declan Gilheany (UCD) who was awarded the Dave Kelly cup for his talk on an asymmetric Grignard synthesis of alcohols.

Congratulations Amy and Mairead!

We congratulate Amy Maguire and Mairead Boland on their graduation today! Both did an excellent job in their final projects and decided to pursue PhDs. Amy starts next week in Trinity College Dublin with Prof Stephen Connon in the area of organocatalysis. While Mairead is starting a PhD with Prof Stefan Oscarson (UCD) in carbohydrate chemistry. Congratulations to Mairead on winning an IRC scholarship for her PhD, and to Amy for obtaining her post through competitive interviews.