Klavs F.Jensen

Executive Editor Maria Southall welcomes Dionisios Vlachos as the new Editor-in-Chief of Reaction Chemistry & Engineering and pays tribute to the leadership and many contributions of departing inaugural Editor-in-Chief Klavs Jensen.

Collaboration between synthesis laboratories requires procedures that are reproducible despite differences in equipment. Now, a digital standard for automated chemical synthesis reproduces results between distinct laboratory systems almost half a world apart.

Systems and processes for performing solid phase peptide synthesis are generally described. Solid phase peptide synthesis is a known process in which amino acid residues are added to peptides that have been immobilized on a solid support. In certain embodiments, the inventive systems and methods can be used to perform solid phase peptide synthesis quickly while maintaining high yields. Certain embodiments relate to processes and systems that may be used to heat, transport, and/or mix reagents in ways that reduce the amount of time required to perform solid phase peptide synthesis.

Chemoenzymatic synthesis methods use organic and enzyme chemistry to synthesize a desired small molecule. Complementing organic synthesis with enzyme-catalyzed selective transformations under mild conditions enables more sustainable and synthetically efficient chemical manufacturing. Here, we present a multistep retrosynthesis search algorithm to facilitate chemoenzymatic synthesis of pharmaceutical compounds, specialty chemicals, commodity chemicals, and monomers. First, we employ the synthesis planner ASKCOS to plan multistep syntheses starting from commercially available materials. Then, we identify transformations that can be catalyzed by enzymes using a small database of biocatalytic reaction rules previously curated for RetroBioCat, a computer-aided synthesis planning tool for biocatalytic cascades. Enzymatic suggestions captured by the approach include ones capable of reducing the …

The Community Resource for Innovation in Polymer Technology (CRIPT) data model is designed to address the high complexity in defining a polymer structure and the intricacies involved with characterizing material properties.

Methods and system for solid phase peptide synthesis are provided. Solid phase peptide synthesis is a known process in which amino acid residues are added to peptides that have been immobilized on a solid support. New amino acid residues are added via a coupling reaction between an activated amino acid and an amino acid residue of the immobilized peptide. Amino acids may be activated using, eg, a base and an activating agent. Certain inventive concepts, described herein, relate to methods and systems for the activation of amino acids. These systems and methods may allow for fewer side reactions and a higher yield compared to conventional activation techniques as well as the customization of the coupling reaction on a residue-by-residue basis without the need for costly and/or complex processes.

The presence of solids as starting reagents/reactants or products in flow photochemical reactions can lead to reactor clogging and yield reduction from side reactions. We address this limitation with a new ultrasonic microreactor for continuous solid-laden photochemical reactions. The ultrasonic photochemical microreactor is characterized by the liquid and solid residence time distribution (RTD) and the absorbed photon flux in the reactor via chemical actinometry. The solid-handling capability of the ultrasonic photochemical microreactor is demonstrated with a silyl radical-mediated metallaphotoredox cross-electrophile coupling with a solid base as a reagent.

Automation and digitalization solutions in the field of small molecule synthesis face new challenges for chemical reaction analysis, especially in the field of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Chromatographic data remains locked in vendors’ hardware and software components, limiting their potential in automated workflows and data science applications. In this work, we present an open-source Python project called MOCCA for the analysis of HPLC–DAD (photodiode array detector) raw data. MOCCA provides a comprehensive set of data analysis features, including an automated peak deconvolution routine of known signals, even if overlapped with signals of unexpected impurities or side products. We highlight the broad applicability of MOCCA in four studies: (i) a simulation study to validate MOCCA’s data analysis features; (ii) a reaction kinetics study on a Knoevenagel condensation reaction …