Have you ever unwrapped a piece of chocolate only to find it has a whitish powder surrounding it? It almost stops you from eating the chocolate, right? Chocolate that gets the whitish powdery appearance is said to have undergone a bloom – called chocolate bloom. Fast temperature changes or exposure to moisture can hasten the […]
Author: Heike Brueckner
Diazonamide dot-com
I was at a conference this summer where Patrick Harran gave a lecture on his group’s approach toward the synthesis of callyspongiolide. It was special. Harran has charisma that, as best as I can gather, comes from a combination of a near photographic memory, tremendous creativity, deference to the contributions others in his field, and […]
How VanA Strains Get Away With It, Part Two
An evaluation of the thermodynamics of binding between various ligands of Vancomycin (Part 2/2) by Matthew Guberman-Pfeffer* Part 1 in this series can be found here on The Offset and also at the Winnower. Vancomycin Molecular Recognition Events (cont’d) Conversion of the C-terminal D-Ala to D-Lac in the bacterial peptide target results in the loss of one […]
Friendly Conversation
Some of the most rewarding moments in my professional career have been in the midst of protracted conversation with a colleague about some concept or how to communicate an idea to an audience. At times I’ve been the teacher and other times the learner, but the best is when somehow, almost through the strength of […]
Resistance: How VanA Strains Get Away With It
An evaluation of the thermodynamics of binding between various ligands of Vancomycin (Part 1/2) by Matthew Guberman-Pfeffer* This post is also published on The Winnower under DOI:10.15200/winn.144060.03577 In Brief The longstanding invincibility of vancomycin (VC) – the last line of antimicrobial therapy for life-threatening Gram-positive infections – has been compromised over the past decade. The most common and […]
Summer Reads 2015 – Total Synthesis Communications
A collection of well-written communications reporting the total synthesis of natural product target compounds.
Sympathy for the amide bond
A paragraph by paragraph analysis of Haoxuan Wang and Sarah E. Reisman’s 2014 Angewandte Chemie communication on the enantioselective synthesis of (-)-lansai B and (+)-nocardioazines A and B.
The Ride of a Lifetime: a Fulbright Experience
My Fulbright experience during the spring and summer of 2013 in Barcelona played a transformative role in my life, both personally and professionally.
Deconstructing a JACS communication: Winkler’s Ingenol synthesis
A play-by-play of Winkler’s synthesis of (±)-Ingenol as reported in J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2002, 124, 9726-9728.
A Key to the Heart of Macrocyclic Structures
Positioning and Configuration of Key Atoms Influence the Topology of [13]-Macrodiolides. Jun Ma, Mark W. Peczuh* J. Org. Chem., 2013, 78, 7414–7422, DOI: 10.1021/jo400383g Atoms at specific “key” positions along the ring of a group of [13]-membered ring macrocycles can govern its shape, or “topology”. The driving force for the organization of the structures is […]