“'I find it worrying that nowadays organic synthesis can often be narrowed down to just the development of building blocks. That's good in itself, but it shouldn't stop there. Synthesis is broader, you are also an architect. You are looking for structure, a function or a property and you have to build that into a [...]
For the first time, a number of substances from the mushroom family Ganoderma have been combined in a total synthesis. Read all about it in our article in the European Journal of Organic Chemistry. The Ganoderma mushrooms have been used in traditional East Asian medicine for over 2000 years and more than 900 substances have [...]
The KNCV-Backer Prize is awarded annually to the best PhD thesis in the field of organic chemistry that was defended in the Netherlands. The Committee consisted of Marthe Walvoort (Chair), Tati Fernández-Ibáñez, Bauke Albada and Gert de Cremer; experts in a wide range of disciplines within the organic chemistry field. In total, 10 theses [...]
Check out the article published in C2W Vakblad voor chemie en life sciences, 10/2021, p.18-21. about our journey synthesizing crenarchaeol. Holzheimer, M., Damsté, J. S. S., Schouten, S., Havenith, R. W. A., Cunha, A. V., & Minnaard, A. J. (2021). Total Synthesis of the Alleged Structure of Crenarchaeol enables Structure Revision. Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English), 60(32), [...]
'Building molecules can be art' Synthesis of one of the most abundant organic lipids elucidates its structure Published by RUG ScienceLinx Crenarchaeol is a large, closed-loop lipid that is present in the membranes of ammonium-oxidizing archaea, a unicellular life form that exists ubiquitously in the oceans. In comparison to other archaeal membrane lipids, crenarchaeol is [...]
