All Medicinal chemistry articles – Page 6
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Lesson planChemistry masterclass
Undertake the work of a medicinal chemist by isolating an active compound. Includes kit list, safety instructions and session timings
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Resource
Laboratory and Pilot Plant Tours
Take a virtual tour of the areas where chemists work. The chemistry laboratories do initial research and the pilot plant is involved in making pharmaceutical products on a large scale. Key equipment and activities are highlighted. Courtesy of the ABPI.
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Feature
From molecules to medicines
Turning an active drug molecule into a finished product requires as much chemistry as developing the drug in the first place, as Phillip Broadwith discovers.
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On This Day – Aug 10 : Synthesis of aspirin
Aspirin was one of the first drugs to become commercial available and is still the most widely used drug in the world. Approximately 35,000 metric tonnes are produced and consumed each year – that’s enough to make more than 100 billion aspirin tablets.
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On This Day - Mar 11 : Alexander Fleming died
He discovered the antibiotic penicillin, which was the first of many antibiotic drugs that successfully treated a variety of bacterial diseases. This discovery earned him part of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945, shared with Ernst Chain and Howard Florey.
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On This Day – Aug 31 : First chemotherapeutic drug
German scientist Paul Ehrlich coined the term ‘chemotherapy’ to describe what he called a ‘magic bullet’: a substance that could find and kill infectious microbes without harming the host. Chemotherapy still plays a very important role in cancer treatment today.
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On This Day - Mar 30 : The first anaesthetic used
American surgeon Crawford Long encouraged his patient to inhale ether during a medical procedure to remove a neck tumour. This marked the beginning of the use of anaesthesia during surgeries.
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On This Day - Mar 27 : Paul Lauterbur died
He was awarded half of the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2003 for the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI scans use nuclear magnetic resonance to see inside the body and have revolutionised medical diagnosis.
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On This Day - Nov 25 : Adolph Kolbe died
He discovered a method for the electrolysis of the salts of fatty acids, known as Kolbe electrolysis. He also identified the Kolbe synthesis reaction, which is a method of making salicylic acid – the main component of Aspirin.
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On This Day - Dec 24 : Medical use of radioisotope
American physician and phyicist John Lawrence used phosphorus-32 (32P) to treat a 28 year old woman with chronic leukaemia at Berkeley, California. He became the father of nuclear medicine.
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On This Day – Jul 22 : Selman Waksman was born
He coined the term ‘antibiotic’ and discovered streptomycin, the first drug that was effective against tuberculosis. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1952 for this work.
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On This Day - Oct 19 : Samuel Guthrie died
He discovered chloroform (trichloromethane) by distilling chloride of lime (a mixture of calcium hydroxide, chloride and hypochlorite) with alcohol in a copper barrel. He found that this had properties that made it a mild anaesthetic, which he used in amputations.
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On This Day - Oct 15 : First contraceptive pill
The pill was a steroid hormone, norethindrone, developed by Carl Djerassi and co-workers at Syntex in Mexico City. Around 100 million women worldwide now take contraceptive pills, which are approximately 99% effective against pregnancy.
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On This Day - Oct 03 : Charles Pedersen was born
He shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the synthesis of crown ethers. These are a group of compounds that can “recognize” each other and choose which other molecules to form complexes, much like the behaviour of molecules found in living organisms.
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On This Day - Oct 01 : Thalidomide was marketed
This notorious drug was marketed as a mild sleeping pill that was safe even for pregnant women. It wasn’t until 1962 that the severe side effects were revealed, where it had caused the development of malformed limbs in babies.
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On This Day - Jan 11 : Thompson trialled insulin
On the verge of death, the 14 year old diabetic agreed to the trial. Insulin was first discovered by Banting, Best and Macleod in 1921, but it was Collip’s work on the purification of insulin that enabled it to be used clinically.
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Soundbite
Vancomycin
Simon Cotton takes a look at those compounds that find themselves in the news or relate to our everyday lives.
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