Aliskiren

Aliskiren is the first drug that inhibits rennin, which has a key role in the regulation of blood pressure. It was approved by FDA for the treatment of hypertension in March 2007. For more information on Mode of action, Basis of discovery, Clinical data, Drug properties.
See: Nature Reviews, Vol 6, October 2007, 779.

Openings in Ecole Polytechnique, Switzerland

Find the below link for some PhD opening in the famous Ecole Polytechnique, Swiss.

http://isic.epfl.ch/open_positions.htm

http://www5.epfl.ch/emplois/page13862.html

Cheers,

Ahamed.

First Enantioselective Petasis type reaction

See the recent paper in JACS, 2007, 129, 6686-6687 by Takemoto. A good catalyst design for the first report on catalytic enantioselective Patasis type reaction. Usually for Reissert, Petasis type reactions many of the well known catalysts fail to produce good %ee for obvious reasons. They have got good ee but yields are moderate. I feel the yields are considered good for these type of reactions. Also chloroformate is used as a electrophile which is far better that acid chlorides, they have proved once again.

Dr.Manmohan Singh Scholarships

Dear All,
British Council has recently announced Dr.Manmohan Singh scholarships - 2008 for Doctoral studies in St.Johns College, The University of Cambridge.
See the below link for more information and eligibility.
http://www.britishcouncil.org/india-scholarships-drmanmohansingh.htm

Muneer Ahamed.

World AIDS day - Dec 1

World AIDS day is observed on Dec 1 every year.

The theme for this year is : Stop AIDS Keep the Promise - Leadership.

For more information

http://www.uniteagainstaidsconcert.ca/

http://www.worldaidsday.org/

This is a awareness post from my side.

Ahamed.

Asymmetric Aza-Henry reaction

A recent paper on JACS,2007,129,12392-12393. Which is a smart work in developing a Tetraaminophosphonium salt based chiral ligand.

The ligand synthesis began with treatement of Diamine with PCl5, to form the phosponium catalysts. My question is what will be if we use a aminoacid in place of the diamine, there are no reports Aminoacids based phosphonium salt. Iam not sure about the sterically bulcky groups which dictates the enentioselectivity in this particular paper, imean if i used a simple L-Valine in palce of the of the L-Valine derivative (Which is used in the current paper). I dont know why the author choose L-valine derivative insted of a simple L-Valine.

Iam working on catalyst developement for Aza-Henry reaction especially on cyclic imines.

But a good paper to read.

Ahamed.