On October 6, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winners of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The recipients were professors Benjamin List, from the Max Planck Institute in Mulheim, and David MacMillan, from Princeton University. The award took into account the work of researchers in the area of asymmetric organocatalysis. Benjamin List maintains scientific collaboration with Unicamp, through a partnership between his Institute and the Laboratory for the Synthesis of Natural Products and Drugs of the Institute of Chemistry (IQ), coordinated by professor Fernando Antonio Santos Coelho.
Organocatalysis is a methodology that uses organic molecules as catalysts, which are substances that accelerate and improve chemical reactions. According to Professor Fernando Coelho, the substances used as catalysts generally have a metal at their base. When used in processes in which reactions give rise to pharmaceuticals and other products intended for consumption, it is necessary to ensure that the final product does not contain metal contamination. Using organic molecules as catalysts eliminates this problem.
Organocatalysis also contributes to more sustainable chemistry, as substances can be reused. “In addition to avoiding metal contamination, it is possible to recycle and reuse the catalyst. This is why organocatalysis has a very favorable impact in two aspects: first, there is no contamination of the molecule in the medicine. Second, by recycling it, it contributes to sustainable chemistry, which is chemistry that, among other things, generates low or no amounts of waste that could impact the environment”, explains Professor Fernando.
Another contribution of organocatalysis refers to the fact that such molecules - organocatalysts - ensure a final product of high purity. This is because they are enantiomerically pure. “If you carry out a reaction using the organocatalyst, instead of generating two possible isomers, it generates just one, and with high purity. This is very good for medicines, because there are no contaminations and a pure product is obtained”, explains the professor.
Collaboration with Unicamp
The scientific collaboration between Benjamin List and Unicamp began in 2015. The link was established based on the methodology developed by the researcher. “Our contribution is centered on studies of reactions with substrates that may have medicinal uses”, says Fernando Coelho.
Using catalysts developed by Benjamin and reactions developed in the Laboratory coordinated by Fernando, it was possible to achieve the synthesis of molecules that are inhibitors of the tubulin protein, with antitumor potential.
As part of the partnership, the then IQ doctoral student, José Tiago Menezes Correia, spent a period in 2015 at the Max Planck Institute (Max-Planck Institut for Kohlenforschung) under the supervision of professor Benjamin List. His stay was financed by a Research Internship Abroad Grant (BEPE), from the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Fapesp). The work developed by José Thiago in Germany became a chapter of his PhD thesis, entitled Diastereo and enantioselective organocatalytic strategies for the synthesis and functionalization of N-heterocycles, defended at IQ in July 2017. In November this year, another IQ postgraduate student, Thiago Sabino da Silva, will carry out research activities in the German laboratory.
The collaboration between the Natural Products and Drugs Synthesis Laboratory and Benjamin List has already generated a publication joint, 2017.
