UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI
Description:
The University of Helsinki has the widest range of disciplines in Finland. It was established in Turku in 1640, but was transferred to Helsinki in 1828. The number of faculties is eleven. There are 38,400 degree students and 7,900 staff. The number of degrees taken each year is almost 4,500, of which over 400 are doctorates. The University of Helsinki concentrates on high-level scientific research and researcher education. The University participates in more than half of the national Centres of Excellence in Research, elected by international scientific panels. The University of Helsinki has been invited to be a member of the League of European Research Universities, a co-operation body for the leading European research universities. According to international expert panels, also the teaching provided by the University of Helsinki is of a high European level. The University has strong international connections. It has some 80 co-operation agreements with universities on different continents.
The Department of Chemistry is the leading teaching and research unit in the field in Finland. The Department possess very good possibilities for basic and post-graduate studies in analytical, inorganic, physical, organic, polymer and radio chemistry, as well as in chemistry teachers’ education. The Department has a great variety of state-of-the-art machinery, also linked to the undergraduate teaching such as the Advanced Spectroscopy in Chemistry Joint Degree MUNDUS Master Program, funded by the EU. As regards the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, present research efforts focus on organic synthesis on a wide front, including the use and development of computer aids, with interests both in target-oriented work and in new synthetic methods. In advanced undergraduate teaching, the emphasis is on organic synthesis.
The research group interests cover “Drug discovery” and “Green technology in practice: Natural product synthesis in ionic liquids”.
As regards Drug Discovery, synthesis, small molecule design and protein modelling studies are carried out to develop novel potential inhibitors for drug design projects. At present the research is focused on the design of novel derivatives of Tamiflu, a neuraminidase inhibitor used in the treatment of avian flu, and the discovery and synthesis of innovative pharmaceutical compounds to control steroid hormone biosynthesis. State-of-the-art molecular visualization and computational tools (SYBYL, Discovery Studio, GROMACS, GOLD, SPROUT, PyMOL) are used for modelling protein structure and protein-ligand interactions, and for de novo ligand design. This allows the quick generation of rational drug ideas for diversity-oriented syntheses and retro synthetic analyses. Combinatorial and parallel synthetic techniques are used to create libraries of molecules for the target proteins. The products are analysed by LC-MS, GC-MS/MS or LC-NMR (500 MHz).
Regarding natural product synthesis in ionic liquids, the aim is to develop new greener synthetic routes for certain natural products, highly promising bioactive materials that are not readily obtained in quantity from natural sources and whose synthesis has traditionally relied on unwieldy Friedel-Crafts and similar reactions. The present research is focused on using ionic liquids as reaction media and the application of microwave reaction enhancement techniques. Ionic liquids have been recognized as one of the new classes of solvents or materials that offer new, cleaner, green technologies in which waste streams are minimized. Ionic liquids are usually the salts of an organic cation and an organic or inorganic anion. They have low melting points (< 100ºC), which are influenced by asymmetry of the cation and the nature of the anion. Ionic liquids possess many useful properties, making them good media for homogeneous catalysis: they are able to dissolve a wide range of organic, inorganic and organometallic compounds, they are non-volatile in atmospheric pressure, inflammable, and can be designed to be non-toxic and easily recycled. Also, polarity and hydrophilicity/lipophilicity can be adjusted by the appropriate choice of cations/anions—ionic liquids have been referred to as “designer solvents”.