Why organic synthesis? The role of N-heterocycles in medicinal chemistry:

Organic synthesis plays an important part in a variety of fields, ranging from medicine to agriculture, and is essential to the field of chemistry. Sometimes, the mutation or disease being targeted by medicine has an unusual structure which makes it hard for the disease to be treated.

In these situations, novel compounds often have to be synthesized to target these issues, and at the Clark group that is exactly what we focus on. The Clark group focuses on synthesizing molecules with structures known as n-heterocycles in them. The N-heterocycles' structure is capable of forming various bonds with many substances, giving it a multitude of uses. This along with its ability to allow chemists to modify various qualities of biological substances, such as polarity and solubility, once again due to its structure, has caused n-heterocycles to be present in sixty to seventy percent of all medical drugs. The potential targets of these molecules are numerous, but in the Clark group, we focus on the potential of certain N-heterocyclic compounds to deal with major medical issues, such as cancer and obesity. When used as a ligand, the n-heterocycle can create metal complexes and use active targeting to fight cancer cells and bacteria, oftentimes much more effectively than other organic ligands. In a separate use, through the inhibition of protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP), N-heterocycles can also be used in anti-diabetic and anti-obesity drugs.

Organic synthesis may initially appear to be a daunting concept, but through the continuous learning opportunities offered at ASDRP, there is no doubt that with dedication student researchers can master the basics of the topic, and work in a variety of chemical fields.