Abbie Carr

• MChem Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry
• Development of a New “Advanced Medicinal Chemistry” Laboratory Course for Stage 3 Undergraduate Students

My project involved development of a new 5-week laboratory course which is a part of the “Advanced Medicinal Chemistry” module for Stage 3 Chemistry students. Besides finding appropriate experiments to match the lecture material it was important to consider such aspects as their cost, reproducibility and time-scale.

I have investigated various methods of synthesis of antibiotic and antifungal drugs from which I have selected 3 experiments to be used in the laboratory course: synthesis of ethyl nalidixate (backbone to many different drugs), synthesis of penicillin derivative (well-known antibiotic), and synthesis of chalcone derivatives (also known to demonstrate antibacterial activity). Products of the experiments were characterized using various analytical techniques such as infrared and nuclear magnetic spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and melting point measurement. To highlight the medicinal aspect of the module the synthesised drugs were later subjected to bioassay to test their antibiotic or antifungal activity.  

Funding source: Newcastle University

Supervisor: Dr Zuleykha McMillan