2005 IRISH SCIENTIST YEAR BOOK

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Dublin City University and Trinity College Dublin
Nick Gathergood, Michael Oelgemöller and Stephen Connon
Green Chemistry Group – waste not want not!

Water Flea (Daphnia magna) in a water drop held by a grass head.*

The Green Chemistry Group links Dublin City University and Trinity College Dublin in a program of clean synthesis of pharmaceuticals. Application of solar photochemistry, organocatalysis and ionic liquids to drug synthesis, yields methods which are energy efficient, atom efficient and selective. Ease of recovery of products, reagents and solvents leads to less waste. Catalytic amounts of toxic reagents reduce noxious by-products and the application of metal-free organocatalysts leads to reactions with an extremely low toxicity profile.

Recent biodegradable ionic liquid and synthetic photochemistry research by the group is highlighted on the cover of the Royal Society of Chemistry publication 'Green Chemistry' shown here.

The priority of the Green Chemistry Group is to develop clean and environmentally friendly synthetic methods for the pharmaceutical industry. The research areas of the Green Chemistry Group are:

· Ionic liquids: tailored solvents for synthesis
· Biodegradation
· Photochemistry with concentrated sunlight
· Bioremediation
· Catalysis
· Organocatalysis
· Synthetic medicinal chemistry
· Single enantiomer drug preparation.

By considering green synthetic methods as part of the medicinal chemistry of the drug design and development process, it is envisaged that less toxic procedures and reductions in waste can be attained.

Dr Connon, Trinity College, Dublin, is a leading authority on organocatalysis in Ireland. Dr Gathergood and Dr Oelgemöller are members of the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology (NICB) a multidisciplinary research institute based at Dublin City University, NUI Maynooth and IT Tallaght. High throughput preparation and screening of biologically active leads with the NICB will expedite the drug discovery program.

Current international collaborations with green chemistry centres include: Spain, France, Germany, Australia and Japan.

* Image reproduced by permission of Warren Photographic Digital Image Library and The Royal Society of Chemistry from Green Chemistry 2005, 7, 1 .

Contact: Dr. Nick Gathergood, NICB, School of Chemical Sciences,
Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland;
Tel: +353 1 7007860, Fax: +353 1 7005503;
E-mail: [email protected]