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Chemistry for tomorrow’s world
A roadmap for the chemical sciences
www.rsc.org/roadmap
www.rsc.org/roadmap
Dr Anne Horan
Royal Society of Chemistry
Synthesis Grand
Challenge
“Synthesis is achieved by
performing chemical
transformations, some of which
are known and some of which
must be invented”
The National Academies Press, 2003
Synthetic Chemistry
Transformative Reactions - Suzuki Cross Coupling
 First published in 1979
 2010 Nobel Prize with Heck, Negishi
 Used by synthetic chemists in the formation of carbon carbon bonds
Realising Impact – Abiraterone
 Cross coupling led to synthesis a Steroidal compound - inhibitor of CYP17
 Treatment for aggressive prostate cancer – prodrug Abiraterone Acetate
(FDA approval 2011)
 Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in the
UK (Globally, 258,000 men died of prostate cancer in 2008)
G. A .Potterm; S E Barrie; M. Jarman and M.G. Rowlands;
J. Med. Chem. 1995,38, 2463-2471
Transformative Reactions – Sharpless Asymmetric
Epoxidation
 First discovered in1980
 2001 Nobel Prize with Knowles and Noyori
 Facilitating asymmetric synthesis of complex products with structural diversity
 Powerful and versatile tool
 Synthetic intermediates - Erythromycin (macrolide antibiotic) and Leukotriene C-1
An opportunity to collaborate
RSC Organic Division
 Raise Awareness of the importance
and value of organic chemistry
 Highlight a list of potential new
reactions that would be
transformative
 Article on the Organic Division
webpage on rsc.org
Dial-a molecule
 A step change in molecular synthesis
“Many desirable chemical reactions
have yet to be discovered”
 Promote DAM on rsc.org
Organic Chemists Contributing to the Development of Photovoltaics
 Advantage OPVs - low cost, light-weight and
flexible
 Cost-effective alternative to inorganic-based PV
 Palladium-catalysed coupling (Stille) to generate
diketopyrrolopyrrole-based copolymer
 Leading to better understanding between molecular
structure, electronic structure, PV properties,
materials microstructure
Durrant, McCulloch et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 3272-3275
An opportunity to collaborate
RSC Organic Division
 Raise Awareness of the importance
and value of organic chemistry
 Highlight a list of potential new
reactions that would be
transformative
 Article on the Organic Division
webpage on rsc.org
Dial-a molecule
 A step change in molecular synthesis
“Many desirable chemical reactions
have yet to be discovered”
 Promote DAM on rsc.org
A list of yet to be invented transformations that
would be worthy of a Nobel prize:
Suggested Criteria……
 unimaginable via existing technology (surprising)
 access to structures of socio-economic importance (Impact)
 platform for expanding our understanding of synthetic chemistry
transformations/mechanism (science-driven)
“Contribution was the discovery of a new synthesis method”
Professor Akira Suzuki,
The Chemistry Centre London, 2012
Wouldn’t it be nice if…………..
 Reductive conversion of a secondary alcohol into a carbon
nucleophile with retention of configuration (DAM)
 Oxidative coupling of unfunctionalised sp3-hybridised carbon atoms
(DAM)
 Exchange C for N in a cyclic molecules (e.g. benzene to pyridine)
 Catalytic reduction of CO2 on an industrial scale