Marie Curie Actions: Inspiring Researchers - Imdea

From ladybirds topest controlThe rise in antibiotic resistance means the hunt is on for newchemical compounds that could kill disease-causing bacteria.The fi rst stage in the drug-discovery process entails screeninglarge numbers of compounds for potential antibacterialproperties. But where do these compounds come from? Oldertechniques for generating new molecules tended to generatelarge numbers of similar compounds.Spanish chemist Mónica Díaz Gavilán’s work involves a newertechnique called Diversity-Oriented Synthesis (DOS). As its namesuggests, it allows researchers to create large numbers of verydiverse molecules that look and behave very differently to oneanother. The DOS method has contributed a great deal to theadvancement of research in organic synthesis.Dr Díaz Gavilán’s Marie Curie Fellowship allowed her to spendtwo years in the lab of Professor David Spring, one of theworld’s leading researchers in DOS.Professor Spring’s group offers young researchers a fertiletraining ground on which to learn their craft. The researchstaff is gathered from across Europe and beyond. His teammaintains close ties with both academic researchers andindustrial partners, including AZ, Bayer Schering, GSK, Lilly,Pfi zer, Syngenta and UCB.Crucially, working in Cambridge gave Dr Díaz Gavilán access totop-of-the-range technical equipment and laboratory materials,along with the chance to work side by side with some of thebest researchers in Europe.A molecular librarianIn DOS, researchers use simple, readily available moleculesas building blocks. By triggering the right series of reactions,they can encourage these building blocks to combine inlots of different ways, leading to the creation of a diverse‘molecular library’.Dr Díaz Gavilán used amino-alkenes as her starting materials.Although they are simple molecules, they can be modifi ed153