Organic chemists at The Ohio State University have figured out how to synthesize the most common molecule arrangement in medicine, a scientific discovery that could change the way a number of drugs – including one most commonly used to treat ovarian cancer – are produced.
Their discovery, published today in the journal Chem, gives drug makers a crucial building block for creating medicines that, so far, are made with complex processes that result in a lot of waste.
This new finding may allow drug makers to create this building block in just one step, said David Nagib, the study’s senior author and assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Ohio State.
A drug’s molecules must interact in just the right way with the molecules inside the human body to be effective. It’s like when two people meet: Each person must use their right hand to shake hands with each other. If one person tries to use their left hand, it just doesn’t work.
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