First Biomaterials Discovery Weekly Seminar

The Biomaterials Discovery Programme Grant gathered for their first weekly seminar on Thursday 8^th March and Laurence Burroughs gave an excellent talk.

Laurence’s talk was entitled: “The Unexpected Ring”: Serendipity has led to a variety of scientific advances, but chance discoveries are often overlooked when researchers discard results that aren’t “the ones they want”. We have (accidentally) discovered a one-pot synthesis of complex 8-membered ring structures with excellent substrate scope, and elucidated a probable mechanism using isotope labelling and molecular modelling studies. The high level of molecular complexity delivered rapidly using this reaction makes it ideal for diversity-oriented synthesis screening approaches to discovery of novel medicines.

It was an excellent opportunity to hear about Laurence’s work more widely, and a great chance for the Programme Grant team to get together.

Laurence Burroughs