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How the Andrulis Paper Got PublishedEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The editor of the journal Life has published an attempt at detailing how the notorious Andrulis paper managed to make its way into print. See how convincing you find it. In the course of explaining that it can be hard to find reviewers for interdisciplinary topics, and how the journal tries to find reputable people in each field (and carefully checks author suggestions for reviewers), we have this: Life is a new journal that deals with new and sometime difficult interdisciplinary matters. Consequently, the journal will occasionally be presented with submitted articles that are controversial and/or outside conventional sci...
Source: In the Pipeline - February 3, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: The Scientific Literature Source Type: blogs

AstraZeneca in WalthamEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
From several reports, here's what I have on AstraZeneca's plans in Waltham: they've told people there that cuts are coming. But they haven't gotten very specific on when, or who, or how many. All those questions (that is, all the questions there could be) are under review. Pfizer has done this to their people before, as have other companies in the throes of layoffs, and it's the only way I know to actually push morale and productivity down even further in such a situation. You come to work for weeks, for months, not knowing if your, your lab, or your whole department is heading for the chopping block. All you're sure of i...
Source: In the Pipeline - February 3, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: Business and Markets Source Type: blogs

Fluorine NMR: Why Not?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Fluorine NMR is underused in chemistry. Well, then again, maybe it's not, but it's one of those thing that just seems like it should have more uses than it does. (Here's a recent bookon the subject). Fluorine is a great NMR nucleus - all the F in the world is the same isotope, unless you're right next to a PET scanning facility - and the different compound show up over a very wide range of chemical shifts. You've got that going for you, coupling information, NOE, basically all your friends from proton NMR. There's a pretty recent paper showing a good use of all these qualities (blogged about here at Practical Fragments as...
Source: In the Pipeline - February 2, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: Analytical Chemistry Source Type: blogs

AstraZeneca Layoffs and ClosingsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Update: it's all true. 7,300 job cuts in total. Montreal and Soedertaelje (Sweden) to close. And AZ seems to be all but getting out of pain/CNS, cutting down to a few dozen people who will do external collaborations. Oh, and they're buying back 4.5 billion dollars worth of stock, instead of spending that money on what the company tries to make a profit on. So there is that. If you'd like to hear AZ tell you how all this is making them more productive, here's the press release. I've been hearing reports, which I hope are incorrect but as yet have no reason to doubt, that the AstraZeneca site in Montreal is set to close as ...
Source: In the Pipeline - February 1, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: Business and Markets Source Type: blogs

Potassium Hydride Is Not Your FriendEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Noted chem-blogger Milkshake seems to have had a close call with a fire started by a tiny potassium hydride residue. It looks like he made it through without serious injury, but that sort of thing will definitely shake a person up. I hate potassium hydride. Its relative sodium hydride is a common reagent, but it's much tamer (and even so, can cause interesting fires - I knew someone who ignited a heap of it on the pan of a balance while he was weighing it out, which slowed things down a bit). Sodium hydride is usually sold as a 60% dispersion, a dark grey powder soaked with mineral oil to keep it from deteriorating too qu...
Source: In the Pipeline - February 1, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: Chemical News Source Type: blogs

Smugness as a Warning SignEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
At Xconomy, Luke Timmerman has words of wisdom for people in the small biotech world: "Never back smug". That's a quote from venture capitalist Bob More, and it rings true to me as well. Says TImmerman: ". . .it strikes me that life sciences has more than its share of spinmeisters, hypesters, smoke-and-mirrors actors, and worse." Then there’s smugness, that arrogance or sense of superiority. Developing innovative new drugs or devices requires a strong ego, high IQ, stamina, an inspiring personality that attracts other people, and other things. Often, that combination spills over into smugness or arrogance. More says he ...
Source: In the Pipeline - February 1, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: Who Discovers and Why Source Type: blogs

Oxidation of the Methylene Group of Aryl(di)azinylmethanesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Angewchem Synthesis of Aryl(di)azinyl Ketones through Copper- and Iron-catalyzed Oxidation of the Methylene Group of Aryl(di)azinylmethanes Johan De Houwer, Prof. Dr. Kourosch Abbaspour Tehrani and Prof. Dr. Bert U. W. Maes (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - February 1, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Atom- and Step-Economical Pathway to Chiral Benzobicyclo[2.2.2]octenonesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Angewchem Atom- and Step-Economical Pathway to Chiral Benzobicyclo[2.2.2]octenones through Carbon–Carbon Bond Cleavage Dr. Lantao Liu, Dr. Naoki Ishida and Prof. Dr. Masahiro Murakami (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - February 1, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

A General Solution for the 2-Pyridyl ProblemEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Angewchem A General Solution for the 2-Pyridyl Problem Graham R. Dick, Eric M. Woerly and Prof. Martin D. Burke (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - February 1, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Oxidative Trifluoromethylthiolation of Aryl Boronic AcidsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Angewchem Copper-Catalyzed Oxidative Trifluoromethylthiolation of Aryl Boronic Acids with TMSCF3 and Elemental Sulfur Chao Chen, Yan Xie, Lingling Chu, Dr. Ruo-Wen Wang, Prof. Dr. Xingang Zhang and Prof. Dr. Feng-Ling Qing (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - February 1, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

The Andrulis Paper's FalloutEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The fallout from the bizarre Andrulis paper continues. Carl Zimmer reports that editorial board members are resigning from the journal, having had no idea that their names would wind up over something like this. Naturally, that brings up the question of just who did let this thing through the review process, but my bet is that we'll never know. Whoever signed off on it is no doubt running for cover. Another useful feature this affair has had is the chance to see who just posts press releases for fun and profit, and who has some tiny residual bit of editorial discretion. In the former category, apparently, are PhysOrg.com...
Source: In the Pipeline - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: The Scientific Literature Source Type: blogs

AstraZeneca Cutting Even More?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
OK, this is one of those less-than-cheerful mornings on the blog, apparently. Word is in the British press that AstraZeneca is preparing to announce thousands more job cuts later this week. No more concrete details yet - all the company has said is that "clear focus on cash and value creation will continue", and isn't that just about the most encouraging thing you've ever heard? More as this develops. (Source: In the Pipeline)
Source: In the Pipeline - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: Business and Markets Source Type: blogs

The Future of Pharma? Yikes.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Someone has been soaking up the atmosphere at a large pharma company, for sure. "Look, I'm a chemist. I thought you hired me to do chemistry. But so far, all I've heard is gibberish. . .don't you do chemistry here?". Some of you may enjoy that, but for others, it might just be a bit too realistic to be amusing. . . The same user has several other videos on YouTube, such as this one, which (in addition to a few four-letter words), features the phrase "Get off the Kool-Aid!" Clearly someone needs to go through some more training. (Thanks to Pharmalot for the original link). (Source: In the Pipeline)
Source: In the Pipeline - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: Life in the Drug Labs Source Type: blogs

Catalytic Enantioselective Saucy–Marbet Claisen RearrangementEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Angewchem Asymmetric Synthesis of Allenyl Oxindoles and Spirooxindoles by a Catalytic Enantioselective Saucy–Marbet Claisen Rearrangement Trung Cao, Joshua Deitch, Dr. Elizabeth C. Linton and Prof. Marisa C. Kozlowski (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Dehydrogenative Aryl-Aryl Bond FormationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Angewchem [RhIIICp*]-Catalyzed Dehydrogenative Aryl-Aryl Bond Formation Dr. Joanna Wencel-Delord, Corinna Nimphius, Prof. Dr. Frederic W. Patureau and Prof. Dr. Frank Glorius (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Stereoselective Metal-Free OxyaminationsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Angewchem Highly Stereoselective Metal-Free Oxyaminations Using Chiral Hypervalent Iodine Reagents Umar Farid and Prof. Dr. Thomas Wirth (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Intramolecular Redox-Triggered C-H FunctionalizationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Angewchem Intramolecular Redox-Triggered C-H Functionalization Dr. Igor D. Jurberg, Dr. Bo Peng, Eckhard Wöstefeld, Maximilian Wasserloos and Dr. Nuno Maulide (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Intermolecular Coupling of 2-Silylaryl Bromides with AlkynesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Angewchem Palladium-Catalyzed Intermolecular Coupling of 2-Silylaryl Bromides with Alkynes: Synthesis of Benzosiloles and Heteroarene-Fused Siloles by Catalytic Cleavage of the C(sp3)-Si Bond Dr. Yun Liang, Weizhi Geng, Junnian Wei and Prof. Dr. Zhenfeng Xi (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Carbomagnesiation of Alkynyl(aryl)thioethersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Angewchem Synthesis of Functionalized Benzo[b]thiophenes by the Intramolecular Copper-Catalyzed Carbomagnesiation of Alkynyl(aryl)thioethers M. Sc. Thomas Kunz and Prof. Dr. Paul Knochel (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

General and Convenient Reduction of Aromatic and Aliphatic Primary AmidesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Angewchem Two Iron Catalysts are Better than One: A General and Convenient Reduction of Aromatic and Aliphatic Primary Amides Dr. Shoubhik Das, Bianca Wendt, Dr. Konstanze Möller, Dr. Kathrin Junge and Prof. Dr. Matthias Beller (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Easy Access to Functionalized PyrrolesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Angewchem Highly Regioselective Migration of the Sulfonyl Group: Easy Access to Functionalized Pyrroles Xiaoyi Xin, Dr. Dongping Wang, Dr. Xincheng Li and Prof. Dr. Boshun Wan (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Intramolecular Oxidative Oxyarylation of HydroxyalkenesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Angewchem Combined Oxypalladation/C-H Functionalization: Palladium(II)-Catalyzed Intramolecular Oxidative Oxyarylation of Hydroxyalkenes Rong Zhu and Prof. Dr. Stephen L. Buchwald (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Highly Efficient Narasaka–Heck CyclizationsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Angewchem Highly Efficient Narasaka–Heck Cyclizations Mediated by P(3,5-(CF3)2C6H3)3: Facile Access to N-Heterobicyclic Scaffolds Adele Faulkner and Dr. John F. Bower (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Enantioselective Synthesis of Spiro Cyclopentane-1,3′-indolesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Angewchem Enantioselective Synthesis of Spiro Cyclopentane-1,3′-indoles and 2,3,4,9-Tetrahydro-1H-carbazoles by Iridium-Catalyzed Allylic Dearomatization and Stereospecific Migration Qing-Feng Wu, Chao Zheng and Prof. Dr. Shu-Li You (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Conversion of Ketones to Enamides with Ammonia and Acetic AnhydrideEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Angewchem Direct Titanium-Mediated Conversion of Ketones to Enamides with Ammonia and Acetic Anhydride Dr. Jonathan T. Reeves, Zhulin Tan, Dr. Zhengxu S. Han, Dr. Guisheng Li, Dr. Yongda Zhang, Yibo Xu, Dr. Diana C. Reeves, Dr. Nina C. Gonnella, Dr. Shengli Ma, Dr. Heewon Lee, Dr. Bruce Z. Lu and Dr. Chris H. Senanayake (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Asymmetric Hydrogenation of BenzofuransEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Angewchem Ruthenium NHC Catalyzed Highly Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Benzofurans Dr. Nuria Ortega, Slawomir Urban, Bernhard Beiring and Prof. Dr. Frank Glorius (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Oxidative C–H/N–H Bond Functionalizations of AnilinesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
OL Cationic Ruthenium(II) Catalysts for Oxidative C–H/N–H Bond Functionalizations of Anilines with Removable Directing Group: Synthesis of Indoles in WaterLutz Ackermann and Alexander V. Lygin (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Pd-Catalyzed Regioselective C–H Olefination/Cyclization SequenceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
OL Synthesis of Indolo [1,2-a]Quinoxalines via a Pd-Catalyzed Regioselective C–H Olefination/Cyclization SequenceLiang Wang, Wei Guo, Xiao-Xiao Zhang, Xu-Dong Xia, and Wen-Jing Xiao (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Oxidative C–H Bond Olefination of N-MethoxybenzamidesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
OL Ruthenium-Catalyzed Oxidative C–H Bond Olefination of N-Methoxybenzamides Using an Oxidizing Directing GroupBin Li, Jianfeng Ma, Nuancheng Wang, Huiliang Feng, Shansheng Xu, and Baiquan Wang (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Ruthenium-Catalyzed Oxidative C–H/O–H Bond CleavagesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
OL Versatile Synthesis of Isocoumarins and α-Pyrones by Ruthenium-Catalyzed Oxidative C–H/O–H Bond CleavagesLutz Ackermann, Jola Pospech, Karolina Graczyk, and Karsten Rauch (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

One-Pot Synthesis of Dihydrobenzosiloles from StyrenesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
OL General and Practical One-Pot Synthesis of Dihydrobenzosiloles from StyrenesAlexey Kuznetsov and Vladimir Gevorgyan (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Xanthone Formation from 2-AryloxybenzaldehydesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
OL Rhodium-Catalyzed Xanthone Formation from 2-Aryloxybenzaldehydes via Cross-Dehydrogenative Coupling (CDC)Ping Wang, Honghua Rao, Ruimao Hua, and Chao-Jun Li (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Oxidative C(sp2)–H Cycloetherification of o-ArylphenolsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
OL Cu-Catalyzed Oxidative C(sp2)–H Cycloetherification of o-Arylphenols for the Preparation of DibenzofuransJiaji Zhao, Yong Wang, Yimiao He, Lanying Liu, and Qiang Zhu (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

Oxidative Lactonization and Diacetoxylation of AlkenesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
JOC Triflic Acid Catalyzed Oxidative Lactonization and Diacetoxylation of Alkenes Using Peroxyacids as OxidantsYan-Biao Kang and Lutz H. Gade (Source: Organometallic Current)
Source: Organometallic Current - January 31, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: mallesh Source Type: blogs

(Un)stoppable PixantroneEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This one mixes two categories on the blog: "Regulatory Affairs" with "How Not to Do It". A small company called Cell Therapeutics (catchy name) has been developing pixantrone for last-ditch non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. You'll note from that Wikipedia article that this compound has been knocking around for a long time, and it's had a very hard road towards any sort of approval. In 2010, an FDA advisory committee voted it down 12-0, and from the sound of things, it wasn't even that close. But the company appealed and resubmitted, since hope springs eternal and all. They were heading towards an FDA decision next week, and the com...
Source: In the Pipeline - January 30, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: Cancer Source Type: blogs

Potassium hydride self-ignitionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I had a rather bad fire last Friday. I was washing a large jacketed glass reaction vessel used for polymer scale-ups, after pouring the reaction mixture out, and a tiny particle of potassium hydride (from this poorly quenched reaction) that was adhering to the bottom of the reaction flask ignited just as I was giving the flask a proper acetone rinse. So I had a flaming flask in my hands + burning hands + flaming sink in front + a whole bunch of wash bottles ablaze next to me (plastic wash bottles peeing their burning solvents around…) A colleague promptly put the fire out with a mid-sized CO2 fire extinguisher before...
Source: Org Prep Daily - January 30, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: milkshake Tags: lab destruction Source Type: blogs

The Key to Everything? Not Quite.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Here's one of the strangest things I've ever seen in the scientific literature. A new journal, Life, apparently solicited papers for their inaugural issues, and one of them was from Erik Andrulis at Cast Western's School of Medicine. The manuscript came in at 105 printed pages, which should have rung at least a tiny alarm bell, you'd think. And if that wasn't a bit concerning, perhaps the title ("Theory of the Origin, Evolution, and Nature of Life") might have seemed a bit sweeping? Or the abstract, which promises that "The theoretical framework unifies the macrocosmic and microcosmic realms, validates predicted laws of na...
Source: In the Pipeline - January 30, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: The Scientific Literature Source Type: blogs

George Whitesides: The Concept of the Scientific Paper is Eroding Before Our Very EyesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
George Whitesides is well known as an innovator and one of chemistry’s most visible representatives. He has the distinction of being credited with the highest Hirsch index for any living chemist. You could say he knows something about scientific publication. The above video excerpt was taken from an extended interview with Whitesides on the topic of publication. Although the full interview series is worth watching, most striking are Whitesides’ views on the changes happening in scientific publication and what the future is likely to hold: One of the troubles with universities is there’s a te...
Source: Depth-First - January 28, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: Richard Apodaca Source Type: blogs

Roche Goes Hostile for IlluminaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Roche is not only a big drug company, it's a big diagnostics company. And that's what's driving their unsolicited bid for Illumina, a gene-sequencing company from San Diego. Illumina has been one of the big players in the "How quickly and cheaply can we sequence a person's entire genome" game, and apparently Roche believes that there's something in it for them. But as that Reuters link above shows, a lot of other people don't agree, and would rather partner than acquire (Chris Viehbacher, CEO of Sanofi, seems to have been waiting for the opportunity to unburden himself of thoughts to that effect). He may well be right. Se...
Source: In the Pipeline - January 27, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: Business and Markets Source Type: blogs

Arsenic Bacteria Ride Again. (Or Don't).Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
You may not have heard much about the arsenic-bacteria controversy recently, but you're about to hear quite a bit more. Rosie Redfield of UBC, one of the fastest and most vocal critics of the original paper, has been trying to reproduce it in her own group. There's a manuscript in preparation, but since she's been blogging on some of the progress, the import is clear: it hasn't been going well for the "bacteria can take up arsenic in their biomolecules" hypothesis. Scrolling back at that link will give you the story. Here's a summary at Nature News (with a clarification from Redfield on one point). I look forward to seein...
Source: In the Pipeline - January 27, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: Life As We (Don ' t) Know It Source Type: blogs

Science, A Zero-Sum World, and the State of the UnionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I always regret it when politics creeps into this blog. But I just finished reading this post over at The Economist's "Free Exchange" glog, and I can't resist linking to it. The author focuses on a few lines from the President's State of the Union speech, and gets rather agitated: Later, the president added: "Don’t let other countries win the race for the future." The context, innocuously enough, was in calling for greater support for American research and development efforts. But the language of this statement is either daft or ghastly, depending on how charitably one is willing to read it. Is Mr Obama so dense as to ...
Source: In the Pipeline - January 26, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: Current Events Source Type: blogs

Putting a Number on Chemical BeautyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
There's a new paper out in Nature Chemistry called "Quantifying the Chemical Beauty of Drugs". The authors are proposing a new "desirability score" for chemical structures in drug discovery, one that's an amalgam of physical and structural scores. To their credit, they didn't decide up front which of these things should be the miost important. Rather, they took eight properties over 770 well-known oral drugs, and set about figuring how much to weight each of them. (This was done, for the info-geeks among the crowd, by calculating the Shannon entropy for each possibility to maximize the information contained in the final mo...
Source: In the Pipeline - January 26, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: Life in the Drug Labs Source Type: blogs

Five Things to Do Instead of Protesting the Research Works Act (HR 3699)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions The resolution to the scientific publishing crisis will not come through a government bailout in the form of public access policies. It will come from starving entrenched old-guard publishers of the only value they’re currently adding to the scientific publication system - imprimatur. Regardless of whether you’re a leader in your field or just a concerned scientist, imprimatur comes from the combined perceptions of you and your peers. Fortunately, perceptions can change. The way to create a scientific publication system that advances the cause of science is to make it repugnant, ridiculous, an...
Source: Depth-First - January 25, 2012 Category: Chemists Authors: Richard Apodaca Source Type: blogs

Panel on Academic-Industrial Collaboration in Drug DiscoveryEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
So, what questions should be asked? I've been asked to moderate a panel discussion ("Bridging the Valley of Death") at the upcoming Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening conference in San Diego. It's a session moderated by Bill Janzen from the University of North Carolina and Michelle Palmer from the Broad Institute, and the panelists are John Luk from the National University of Singapore, Rudy Juliano from UNC, Mao Mao from Pfizer (San Diego), Alan Palkowitz from Eli Lilly, and John Reed from Sanford-Burnham. The discussion will be live-streamed (I'll put up the link that day), so if you're interested in that s...
Source: In the Pipeline - January 25, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: Academia (vs. Industry) Source Type: blogs

Open Office Plans - A Question or TwoEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
As a follow-up to that post on open offices (and the others referenced in it), I've had a letter from a reader who wonders the following: (1) How many recent research buildings have been built with open offices, as opposed to cubicles or actual office space? Is this the wave-of-the-future, or is it just a few high-profile examples getting attention? (2) Does anyone know of any examples where a research department has tried an open-office plan and moved back from it after the experience? Just to clarify, I don't mean large, relatively open lab spaces (those are pretty common, and often seem to work just fine). What's in ...
Source: In the Pipeline - January 25, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: Life in the Drug Labs Source Type: blogs

Comments (And Everything Else) Are BackEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Things are running around here again, after some problems with the comment system. Unfortunately, it looks like everything from about Monday mid-day disappeared into the Great Bit Bucket. That's unfortunate, since I know that there must have been some good stories in that "Weirdest Presentation" post - if anyone has the energy to add them again, there would be an audience for them! (Source: In the Pipeline)
Source: In the Pipeline - January 25, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: Blog Housekeeping Source Type: blogs

Comment TroubleEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I've noticed that comments to today's posts seem to have stopped appearing sometime around noon EST. Rooting around under the hood is ongoing; I'll let everyone know what the outcome is. With any luck, things can be rescued! (Source: In the Pipeline)
Source: In the Pipeline - January 23, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: Blog Housekeeping Source Type: blogs

This All Too Open OfficeEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Since the topic of open offices in lab design has come up around here several times, I thought I'd point out this op-ed from the New York Times. It's from the author of a new book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, and you can guess her point from that title: SOLITUDE is out of fashion. Our companies, our schools and our culture are in thrall to an idea I call the New Groupthink, which holds that creativity and achievement come from an oddly gregarious place. Most of us now work in teams, in offices without walls, for managers who prize people skills above all. Lone geniuses are out. Colla...
Source: In the Pipeline - January 23, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: Life in the Drug Labs Source Type: blogs

Strangest Presentation You've Seen?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Friday's mention of the Brindley lecture prompts me to throw this question out: what's the most weirdly memorable scientific presentation you've ever seen? I'll put one out there that still sticks in my mind. Back in 1998, I was attending the Gordon Conference on Heterocycles. One of the speakers was a young faculty member from Montana, who was supposed to be speaking on metal-catalyzed reactions of indoles. Instead, he came in with a completely different slide deck on origins-of-life chemistry, which made it clear, rather quickly, that he not only did not buy into the "RNA world" hypothesis, but considered it (and much o...
Source: In the Pipeline - January 23, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: General Scientific News Source Type: blogs

Worst Lecture of All, Or Greatest?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Depends on your perspective! Since it's Friday, I present this memoir of the infamous Brindley lecture from 1983. G.S. Brindley appears to have been a pioneer in urology, and in fact discovered the first useful therapies for erectile dysfunction. But the way he chose to announce these discoveries to the world was. . .well, read the article. Let's just say that he was intent on leaving no doubts, and that no doubts were left. (Source: In the Pipeline)
Source: In the Pipeline - January 20, 2012 Category: Chemists Tags: General Scientific News Source Type: blogs