New approach in the synthesis of complex natural substances

New approach for total synthesis paves the way for new drug developments

06-May-2024 - They are found as fragrances in cosmetics or as flavorings in food, and form the basis of new medications: Terpenes are natural substances that occur in plants, insects and sea sponges. They are difficult to produce synthetically. However, chemists at the University of Basel are now introducing a ...

Turning One into Eight

Chemists invent technique for producing variants of natural substances

21-Feb-2024 - To synthesize potential drugs or natural products, you need natural substances in specific mirror-image variants and with a high degree of purity. For the first time, chemists at the University of Bonn have succeeded in producing all eight possible variants of polypropionate building blocks from ...

Device 'smells' seawater to discover, detect novel molecules

Promising for drug discovery in fragile ecosystems, including coral reefs

10-Nov-2023 - Under the ocean’s surface, marine organisms are constantly releasing invisible molecules. Some of the chemical clues reveal which creatures are nearby, while others could be used someday as medications. Now, researchers in ACS Central Science report a proof-of-concept device that “sniffs” ...

Transforming flies into degradable plastics

15-Aug-2023 - Imagine using insects as a source of chemicals to make plastics that can biodegrade later — with the help of that very same type of bug. That concept is closer to reality than you might expect. Researchers will describe their progress to date, including isolation and purification of ...

Chemist Jörn Piel receives Inhoffen Medal 2023

HZI and Technische Universität Braunschweig honour specialist for marine natural products

13-Jun-2023 - Many active substances used in medicine are based on naturally occurring products. However, the producers of these substances often do not grow or grow poorly under laboratory conditions. This also applies to marine invertebrates such as sponges, which live in close association with bacteria. ...

Researchers develop efficient process for chemical terpene synthesis

Potential applications in food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries

20-Feb-2023 - A team of scientists led by Professor Tanja Gulder at Leipzig University’s Institute of Organic Chemistry, together with colleagues from the University of Regensburg, has developed a simplified and efficient method for the artificial production of terpenes. Terpenes are a very extensive and ...

Learning from Nature: Biosynthesis of cyanobacterin opens up new class of natural compounds for applications in medicin

31-May-2022 - Researchers in the groups of Prof. Tobias Gulder from TU Dresden and Prof. Tanja Gulder from Leipzig University have succeeded in understanding the biosynthetic mechanisms for the production of the natural product cyanobacterin, which in Nature is produced in small quantities by the cyanobacteria ...

Productive Cascade

Total synthesis of the sesquiterpene agarozizanol B

12-Oct-2021 - Starting from available chemicals, a German team of researchers successfully completed the total synthesis of agarozizanol B, an interesting natural substance found in agarwood. As described in the journal Angewandte Chemie, the key sequence in the relatively short synthetic pathway is a ...

The AETX files: Work to unravel widespread bald eagle fatalities gathers pace

Scientists succeed in totally synthesizing eagle killer venom

15-Jul-2021 - This March, the discovery of the toxic natural substance aetocthonotoxin (AETX) attracted huge media attention. In a study published in Science, pharmacists from Halle University proved the role of this substance in triggering mass species extinctions among American bald eagles and other birds of ...

Harnessing AI to discover new drugs inspired by nature

"Virtual chemist" finds molecules that have the same effect as a natural substance but are simpler and low-​cost to produce

08-Jul-2021 - Artificial intelligence (AI) is able to recognise the biological activity of natural products in a targeted manner, as researchers at ETH Zurich have demonstrated. Moreover, AI helps to find molecules that have the same effect as a natural substance but are easier to manufacture. This opens up ...