Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) chemists have developed a new catalytic method for symmetry breaking. Published in Angewandte Chemie, the method can help synthesize important building blocks for bioactive compounds such as anticancer drugs. Many chemical molecules can exist in nature together with their mirror counterparts; like hands, two compounds can be made up…
A New Method Cuts The Cost of Drug-Building Chemicals
The amines are one of the most important classes of chemical compounds today. Amines that contain a ring-like structure – called an “aryl” group – are used widely in pharmaceuticals, such as the top-selling drugs Abilify, Crestor, Gleevec, and Lidoderm. EPFL scientists have now developed a method to produce aryl-containing amines in a cheap and…