Chemistry

Welcome to “Process Chemistry vs Discovery Chemistry”. In this quarter-long seminar, we will look at real world examples regarding the synthesis of drugs and agrochemicals. Discovery chemistry refers to the synthetic/biological process of synthesizing and evaluating drug candidates while process chemistry refers to the large-scale manufacturing of a drug candidate for further evaluation or commercial production. The synthetic routes regarding a discovery chemistry route and a process chemistry route are often drastically different—this is because in the discovery phase the goal is simply to make the compound to test (sometimes as little as 1 mg) while in the process route the goal is to design the cleanest, safest, cheapest, and greenest way to make kilograms of a small molecule. We will use the principles of reactivity learned in Chemistry 222/225 to work through the types of reactions used in complex molecule synthesis. While the principles of reactivity and arrow pushing learned in 222/225 are fundamental, realistically the reactions we learn are not the ones used to make small molecules. The goal of this course is to teach you to apply the principles you already know to complex molecule synthesis, specifically in the context of drugs/agrochemicals which is perhaps the largest industry for organic chemists. Many of these reactions will be unfamiliar and intimidating but we will work together as a class to get more familiar and comfortable looking at new reagents, pushing arrows in new mechanisms, and understanding key differences between discovery and process routes.