Members of the lab participated in the annual meeting of the SRC (Société Royale des Chimistes). This year, the meeting took place in Liège, around the theme of “Scientific communication”.
It was a nice opportunity to meet chemists from across Belgium, as well as present and discuss our research. Romain, Pauline and Isaline were very proud to showcase posters on phosphate polymerisation, nitrosoarenes and olefin carboxylation.
The group is back from the 2022 Flow Chemistry Summit in Boston. A good opportunity for JC to present the group’s work on APIs synthesis in his talk “Accelerating the Production of Psychotropic Drugs with Flow Technology“, with Diana also presenting her work on modafinil recently published. Also a great chance for JC for a trip down memory lane, as well as for meeting new people in a vibrant community!
We thank Paul Watts and SelectBIO for the invitation and organisation.
It’s an exciting day at the CiTOS, with another one of our members heading out to work at MIT! Thomas will be working at the Myerson lab in a postdoctoral position in collaboration with Takeda Pharmaceutical company.
We Dr. Toupy the best of luck in Boston and in science!
Victor’s last PhD project, conducted along with Diana, is just out in Green Chemistry: “A Continuous Flow Generator of Organic Hypochlorites for the Neutralization of Chemical Warfare Agent Simulants”.
The paper describes a protocol for the neutralisation of sulfur-based, “mustard gas”-type agents using alkyl hypochlorites. The procedure entails the generation of tBuOCl, which promotes the near-instantaneous oxidative degradation of the Chemical Warfare Agents upon addition. The setup relies on affordable reagents and solvents, was demonstrated on the mesofluidic scane and displays a higher efficiency (Space Time Yield = 3.74 kg L-1 h-1) than similar neutralisation methods (based on singlet oxygen or oxone).
This work builds upon previous investigations on the neutralisation of Chemical Warfare Agents in our group and Julien Legros’.
Congratulations to lead authors Diana and Victor as well as co-authors Thomas Bernard!
Concurrently with Thomas’s PhD defense, his two latest papers have been published in OPRD and J Flow Chem!
In his Organic Process Research & Development article “Intensified Continuous Flow Michaelis–Arbuzov Rearrangement toward Alkyl Phosphonates”, Thomas revisits the production of alkyl phosphonate building blocks using a ThalesNano Phoenix reactor. Tweaking the process conditions allows the valorisation of an inevitable side product. This work, which entails productivities of up to 5 kg/d, provides a scalable route towards aminophosphonic acid derivatives, and fits in with Thomas’ work on aminoacids bioisosteres.
In the Journal of Flow Chemistry paper “Continuous flow organocatalyzed methoxycarbonylation of benzyl alcohol derivatives with dimethyl carbonate”, Thomas and co-author Loïc explore a low-footprint synthesis of benzyl N-hydroxycarbamates, replacing chloroformates with the corresponding benzyl methyl carbonates. The latter are obtained from dimethyl carbonate as a reagent and a solvent, using an organocatalyst to selectively functionalise a range of diversely substituted benzylic alcohols.
Congrats to Thomas for a dazzling finish to his PhD, and to Loïc who is just starting his!
Congratulations to Thomas who has defended his PhD thesis, “Feeding the upstream development of potential building blocks towards (phosphono)peptide constructs through enabling multifaceted approaches” on Friday, March 04. Thanks to C. Jerome, C. Damblon, J. Far, K. Karaghiosoff, L. Quinton and R. Robiette for their participation in the jury.
Thomas will soon join the Myerson group at MIT to continue work on flow synthesis. All the best for your next adventure across the pond, Thomas!
Congratulations to Diana, who just published her first paper with the group: “Out-smarting smart drug modafinil through flow chemistry”!
Modafinil has attracted considerable interest, becoming in recent years a foremost anti-narcoleptic drug thanks to its limited side-effects. As part of our efforts towards an end-to-end API manufacturing platform (supported by a NASA EPSCoR grant), we report an improved synthesis of modafinil in 77% yield over three steps. The process was entirely conducted in flow and results in a lower environmental footprint, thanks to the use of class 3 FDA solvents, a reduced E-factor, the formation of only benign side products and the absence of intermediate purification steps.
We are looking forward to report further efforts into the development of an on-demand medication manufacturing system. Congrats as well to CiTOS PhD graduate Noémie, and thanks to our partners at the Crystallization Design Institute in Puerto Rico for their involvement.
The group is looking for outstanding postdoctoral candidates to onboard within an ongoing partnership with ORIL Industries (subsidiary of Servier), a French leader in the pharmaceutical industry. You have a PhD in organic chemistry and a background in flow technology? It’s a match!
The position covers 12 months in Liege. The successful applicant will work in close collaboration with ORIL (proprietary work). Please send (a) a cover letter, (b) a curriculum vitae, (c) a short statement on your motivation and career objectives, and (d) the names and contact details of 3 professional references to jc.monbaliu@uliege.be (ref. ORIL_phase2).
Review of applications will begin on February 1, 2022 and will continue until the position is filled.
Victor just defended his PhD thesis, “Advanced continuous flow strategies toward pharmaceutical ingredients” on Thursday, January 20. Thanks to C. Detrembleur, G. Kaisin, C. Stevens, J. Read de Alaniz and G. Gauron for taking part in the jury.
We wish Victor the best for his next adventure working as API specialist at Trasis!
Kudos to Claire for her review “Perspectives for the Upgrading of Bio-based Vicinal Diols within the Developing European Bioeconomy” published in ChemSusChem!
This perspective explores upcoming technologies for the transformation of bio-based diols into valuable molecules, while putting the emphasis on the most promising conditions for larger scale processes. These innovations take part in the broader push towards a more sustainable economy, especially for the replacement of petro-based resources with bio-sourced platform molecules. We hope this work will spur further development in the production of various value-added building blocks (olefins, epoxides, cyclic carbonates, ketals, etc.) from renewable sources.
