Guest post: From the perspective of a more traditional chemist

This year’s spring meeting of the American Chemical Society presented an incredible opportunity for organic chemists of every level to hear talks from some giants in the field. Larry Overman, Mohammed Movassaghi, and Phil Baran all won awards this year, and their symposia were packed with lectures from the brightest minds in organic chemistry. I personally enjoyed Phil Baran’s talk the most: his chemistry is not only incredible, but he places molecules, reactions, and methodology in a historical context, which is not often seen in chemistry seminars. The ability of the Baran lab to construct the complex architecture of densely functionalized natural products in such short order is awe-inspiring. Larry Overman presented an overview of some of the reactions developed in his lab since the 70’s, most notably the Overman rearrangement. Donna Blackmond, now at Scripps, also gave an excellent talk discussing the work her lab has been performing in the investigation of the proline-catalyzed aldol reaction. In addition to the many fantastic organic seminars, there were also ample medicinal chemistry talks to attend. My personal interests steered me towards an afternoon session on photoaffinity labeling methods as a way to identify drug targets and binding sites. There was also an excellent series of talks discussing new ideas on modifying nuclear hormone receptor activity with novel ligands.

--Caleb Bates