Synthetic chemistry approach yields new compounds with potential biomedical applications

The study marks a significant advancement in chemical synthesis techniques, leveraging modern organic chemistry and engineered enzymes

10-May-2024 - Researchers at Rice University have successfully synthesized a group of natural compounds known as fusicoccanes. The molecules, found in various living organisms, exhibit diverse biological activities, including the ability to modulate protein-protein interactions within biological systems. The ...

Chemists show it's hip to be square

Their synthetic azetidines could help simplify drug design for neurological diseases

13-Aug-2019 - Rice University chemists want to make a point: Nitrogen atoms are for squares. The nitrogens are the point. The squares are the frames that carry them. These molecules are called azetidines, and they can be used as building blocks in drug design. The Rice lab of chemist László Kürti introduced ...

Nitrogen gets in the fast lane for chemical synthesis

Chemists discover way to simplify synthesis of valuable precursor for drugs, other compounds

12-Feb-2019 - Rice University scientists have given organic chemists a boost with their latest discovery of a one-step method to add nitrogen to compounds for drugs, pesticides, fertilizers and other products. Rice synthetic organic chemist László Kürti said the method is a major step forward as it quickens ...

Greener molecular intermediates may aid drug design

07-Jul-2017 - Scientists at Rice University have simplified their approach to synthesize a highly versatile family of precursors en route to biologically active compounds. Their method should make drug design and development cheaper and more environmentally friendly. Synthetic chemist László Kürti and ...

Total synthesis of a new cancer fighter

21-Jun-2016 - Rice University scientists have synthesized a novel anti-cancer agent, Thailanstatin A, which was originally isolated from a bacterial species collected in Thailand. Thailanstatin A fights cancer by inhibiting the spliceosome, the machinery in the cell that edits messenger RNA after transcription ...

Rice University lab simplifies total synthesis of anti-cancer agent

24-May-2016 - The lab of Rice University synthetic organic chemist K.C. Nicolaou has reported the streamlined total synthesis of delta12-prostaglandin J3, a molecule previously claimed to kill leukemic cancer cells. The researchers said their work sets the stage for large-scale synthesis of the cytotoxic ...

Biologists take snapshot of fleeting protein process

Rice, BCM crystallographers capture elusive actin nucleation process

03-Jun-2013 - Structural biologists from Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) have captured the first three-dimensional crystalline snapshot of a critical but fleeting process that takes place thousands of times per second in each human cell. The research appears online today in the journal ...

Platinum nanocatalyst could aid drugmakers

Rice chemists design polymer-coated nanorods for industrial use

02-Sep-2009 - Nanoparticles combining platinum and gold act as superefficient catalysts, but chemists have struggled to create them in an industrially useful form. Rice University chemists have answered the call with a polymer-coated version of gold-platinum nanorods, the first catalysts of their kind that can ...

'Color-blind' method opens new doors in DNA sequencing

04-Apr-2005 - A "color-blind" method of fluorescence detection developed by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University could open new doors that would take DNA sequencing to the patient's bedside, the doctor's office and even the scene of a crime or a battlefield. "We could eventually do ...