Laboratory of Synthetic Drug Chemistry
Professor Liisa Kanerva is the head of the laboratory of synthetic drug chemistry. The laboratory has good facilities for HPLC-, GC- and GC-MS-methods. The analytics of chiral compounds and the employment of enzymes in organic synthesis are our strong areas. We use different enzymes for the kinetic and dynamic resolution of the racemic starting material and for the asymmetric synthesis of prochiral molecules.
Our interest in enzyme catalysis resides in the preparation of highly enantiopure (and/or diastereopure) building blocks or intermediates which, in turn, can function as structural units for the synthesis of various enantiopure pharmaceuticals. Epoxides and glycerol derivatives (A), cyanides as well as hydroxy- and amino acid derivatives (B), cyanohydrins (C) and amino alcohols (D) are examples of resolved building blocks with a wide application area in synthetic chemistry (Chart).
Our recent interests direct toward enantio-, chemo- and regioselective enzymatic synthesis of polyfunctional compounds and toward enzymatic preparation of small peptides.
The Laboratory of Synthetic Drug Chemistry cooperates with the department of organic chemistry of the University of Turku, the Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry of the University of Szeged and with industrial field.
More info in papers mentioned in the list of publications.
Members of the research group:
- Kanerva Liisa, Professor
- Liljeblad Arto, lecturer
- Lundell Katri, teaching assistant
Researchers and Ph.D. students:
- Hara Piia
- Hietanen Ari
- Li Xiang-Guo, PhD
- Päiviö Mari
- Rantapaju Maria
- Turcu Mihaela