Join us on the Pharm to Table podcast for a delightful chat with Ethan Wappes from our South San Francisco site, as we dive into the exciting world of thiophene synthesis! Ethan is a member of our Discovery Process Chemistry group and worked alongside medicinal chemists to devise a better synthetic route towards substituted thiophenes. Ethan shares insights from his recent Org. Lett. on a novel Rh-catalyzed [3+2] method that opens the door to highly substituted dihydrothiophenes, enhancing our medicinal chemistry toolkit. We explore how this strategy not only simplifies complex thiophene syntheses but also paves the way for new drug development possibilities!

Read the papers we discussed today:

Fully Substituted Thiophene Synthesis via (3 + 2) with Thiadiazoles - Org Lett 2024

Follow the Pharm to Table podcast on X - ⁠⁠⁠⁠@PharmtoTablePod

⁠⁠⁠⁠Visit our website at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pharm-to-table

We're kicking off Season 4 (holy cow!) by having a lively discussion answering listener questions on everything from our favorite Boc deprotection methods to the role of AI in the world of chemistry. We also share how flow chemistry is being used in discovery and process chemistry and conclude with what we feel would be disruptive chemistry innovations that could shape 2025. Plus, find out how you can influence the conversation by sharing what you want to hear more of in 2025!

Antibody drug conjugates, or ADCs, are all the rage in the industry right now and chemists play an important role in their development. This month we sat down with Serge Ruccolo and Marion Emmert to talk about their papers in this area. Their work addresses two main challenges of ADC development: 1) potent handling of cytotoxic payloads and 2) selective unmasking of cysteine residues to enable conjugation to the antibody.

Tune in to hear how one develops these chemistries; How electrochemistry and microfluidics can be useful tools for the chemistry of these important molecules. You'll learn a ton, we did!

Electrocatalytic Reduction of Disulfide Bonds across Chemical Modalities - Org Lett

Ready to go with the flow? Then this episode is for you! In this episode, we dive into the exciting world of Continuous-Flow Solid-Phase Peptide Synthesis (CF-SPPS) with special guests Kyle Ruhl and Mike DiMaso. We kick off the episode with a brief overview on various techniques used to synthesize peptides and how each method fits within the drug discovery/development timeline. From there, we serve up their recent paper on leveraging flow to synthesize peptides - exploring the challenges they faced, such as accommodating resin swelling and optimizing synthesis times. We do our best to shield you from any discussions about math when they dive into linear velocity which helped drive peptide synthesis optimization. Discover how CF-SPPS is unleashing rapid, multigram peptide deliveries, culminating in a remarkable 20-gram yield of a 10-mer peptide in just 4 hours!

Join Dani and LC as they peel back the layers on podcasting in chemistry. This insightful episode dives into their recently published Organic Letters editorial "Should You Start a Chemistry Podcast?" with special contributor and corresponding author Matt Horwitz from Synthesis Workshop sharing his unique perspective.

But that's not all - get ready for an artistic twist as Brendan Burkett from Chemscrapes reveals how he transforms chemistry concepts into visually striking designs for the chemistry community (including CEN!).

Whether you're an aspiring podcaster, a chemistry communicator, or just someone fascinated by the interplay of science and art, this episode promises an engaging exploration. Tune in for a candid discussion blending personal experiences, creative insights, and a passion for making chemistry more accessible to all. Don't miss this multimedia showcase!"

Time for the main course! Our #MerckChemistry hiring experts are dishing out more savory tips to help you get hired in pharma.

Looking to kickstart your career in the pharmaceutical industry? This episode is a must-listen! We have special guests Jamie McCabe Dunn, Val Shurtleff and our very own Dani Schultz - hiring managers in Discovery and Process Chemistry - to share insider tips. In part 1 we talk about building a rock-solid network, crafting a standout CV that gets noticed, and acing those crucial first interviews. We also answer listener questions submitted on LinkedIn. Whether you're a fresh grad or an experienced pro, our experts will give you the competitive edge to land your dream job in pharma!

Plus, stay tuned for Part 2 we tackle how to ace your job talk, prepare for interviews and steps to take after receiving an offer!

Alexandra Sun and Harrison Rose join the pod to share their work on a vision-guided automated liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) platform. That's right, before our robot overlords overtake us, they are going to help chemists and engineers with work-ups first! Even though it's often taken for granted, liquid-liquid extractions are part of virtually every chemical reaction for product isolation. Developing these unit operations is critical to chemists and engineers who design processes and Harrison and Alex's new tool can help expedite this. We also asked them for their secret to developing the best phase cuts! We learned a lot on this episode, and we hope you do too!

General Principles and Strategies for Salting-Out Informed by the Hofmeister Series - OPRD

Nadine Kuhl (process chemist) and Jacob Forstater (engineer and physicist) join the pod to share a pretty neat story that had its origins from a chemical catalog brochure advertising a new and green solvent called Cyrene. From that brochure blossomed a really amazing biocatalytic transamination to make a key chiral amine building block. In order to make this process more robust and tolerant of organic solvents, the team immobilized the transaminase enzyme and leveraged a Spinchem rotating bed reactor (we also had no idea what this was, but now we do) to make a robust process. We learned a lot on this episode, and we hope you do too!

Read the papers we discussed today:

Utilizing biocatalysis and a sulfolane-mediated reductive acetal opening to access nemtabrutinib from cyrene - Green Chemistry

Follow the Pharm to Table podcast on Twitter - ⁠⁠⁠@PharmtoTablePod⁠⁠⁠

Visit our website at ⁠⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pharm-to-table