Archived News & Events
Garner group runs the rapids!
(7/04)
Welcome new group member Valerie!
(5/04)
Undergraduate Group Members Awarded Fellowships
(3/04)
Congratulations to undergraduates Nick Sizemore and Nathan Sears on
their acquisition of prestigious summer research fellowships! Nick
was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute SPUR (Summer Program
for Undergraduate Research) fellowship and Nathan a Pfizer SURF
(Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship) award. The funds will
enable them to continue their research on helical nucleopeptides.
Welcome New Group Members Jieyu and Nick!
(1/04)
New Year's Party
(1/04)
Pho+ at Vietnamese Restaurant
(9/03)
Garner Group Members Honored at Departmental Awards Ceremony
(4/29/03)
- Michelle won the Carl F. Prutton Prize for Scholarship in Chemistry.
- Michelle also won the 2003 Hypercube Scholar Award.
- Hugh was presented with a Graduate Teaching Award.
- Noemi earned recognition for Outstanding Graduate Performance.
Noemi and Michelle Take Part in ACS National Meeting
(3/23/03) Here are the citations and abstracts for their papers.
- Garner, Philip; Scardovi, Noemi; Protasiewicz, John D.
S-(2-Pyridinyl)-1,1,3,3-tetramethylthiouronium hexafluorophosphate: A new reagent for the
synthesis of pyridine-2-thiol esters. Abstracts of Papers, 225th ACS National Meeting,
New Orleans, LA, United States, March 23-27, 2003.
Pyridine-2-thiol esters are widely used to activate the carbonyl group for 1,2-addn. and substitution reactions. In order to verify whether α,β-unsatd. carbonyl systems could be similarly activated towards conjugated addn., an interest was developed in α,β-unsatd. pyridine-2-thiol esters. These compds. are reported in literature only when the double bond is very hindered or further conjugated. Our attempts to convert simple α,β-unsatd. carboxylic acids or acid chlorides into the corresponding pyridine-2-thiol esters using known procedures were unsuccessful. Since uronium salts functionalize carboxylic acids under mild conditions, an analogous reagent was designed for the purpose. The thiouronium salt 1 was obtained in good yield from tetramethylurea and 2-mercaptopyridine and effects the conversion of a variety of carboxylic acids 2a-f to their corresponding pyridine-2-thiol esters 3a-f, including crotonic, methacrylic and 2-methoxymethoxy-acrylic acids.
- Garner, Philip; Adams, Michelle M. Synthesis of purine monomers for α-helical peptide
nucleic acids. Abstracts of Papers, 225th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, United
States, March 23-27, 2003.
α-Helical peptide nucleic acids (αPNAs) are unique hybrid mols. that combine the informational character of nucleic acids with the functionality of proteins. Five modified nucleoamino acids incorporated at regular intervals on the backbone of the αPNAs bind with high affinity and specificity to complimentary single-stranded DNA and RNA via Watson-Crick hydrogen bonding. This interaction permits selective inhibition of protein synthesis at the genetic level. Homopyrimidine αPNAs have been prepd., but attempts to incorporate serine-based purine monomers onto the backbone have been unsuccessful. These monomers are unstable to the acidic conditions used to cleave the αPNA from the resin during solid phase peptide synthesis. A synthesis of acid-stable norvaline- based purine monomers has been developed to circumvent the acid-promoted depurination. Unambiguous regioisomeric assignments of N-9 purine alkylation were made by HMQC and HMBC.
Group Meets for Informal Dinner
Pot-luck Dinner (3/8/03)