Marie Kissane departs the group

1st April 2011

It's a sad day in the ARM group as one of our post doc's Marie leaves the group to take up a fantastic position as a postdoctoral researcher with Lilly in Indianapolis. Marie explored the reactivity of beta-chloroacrylamides during her PhD and has since worked as a post-doc in the group in a successful industrial collaboration. Marie has been a wonderful asset to the group and will be sorely missed by all. We wish her all the very best in her new position and for the future.

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Niamh O' Connell departs the group

September 2010

Niamh, after finished up her work on a joint collaboration on phytosterol research with Prof. Anita Maguire and Dr. Florence McCarthy, has moved on to take up a position in industry.

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18^th International Conference on Organic Synthesis

1^st August - 6^th August 2010

Congratulations to Prof. Anita Maguire who was recently an invited speaker at the 18^th International Conference on Organic Synthesis in Bergen, Norway. She spoke on work presently being carried out within the group by several researchers, with a presentation entitled "Enantioselective Catalysis". The work covers several areas of research being explored in our lab, namely the copper catalysed enantioselective induction of the Buchner reaction and C-H insertion reactions as well as copper catalysed asymmetric sulfide oxidation. Several members of the group were in attendance at the conference and a very enjoyable week of chemistry was had by all.

Congratulations Fiona

17^th June 2010

Congratulations to Fiona Deane on graduating with her PhD today. Fiona has just started a new position as a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Newcastle, New South Wales. We would like to wish Fiona all the very best for the future.

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Sebastien Debarge departs the group

6^th April 2010

One of our longest-serving post-docs, Sebastien, recently finished up his work in the group to take up a position in industry. Seb has worked on several projects during his time in the OPSRT, most notably in the development of novel nucleoside analogues as anti-viral agents. Seb will be be sadly missed in the group and we wish all the very best for his future career.

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Congratulations Fiona

12^th March 2010

Congratulations to Fiona Deane on passing her viva today. Fiona carried out a PhD under the joint supervision of Prof Anita Maguire and Dr. Florence McCarthy. We would like to wish her all the very best for her upcoming move to a post-doc in Australia.

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Congratulations Orla

9^th December 2009

Congratulations to Orla on graduating today with her PhD. We would like to wish Orla all the best for her future career.

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Refurbishment of the 4th Floor

August 2009

After a long wait, the brand new 4^th floor organic and inorganic research labs were opened and resarch has recommenced in earnest. There are several differences evident in contrast to the old 4^th floor with a dedicated write-up area for researchers being one of the more significant. The floor also houses an instrument lab and utility lab as well as four synthetic laboratories.

Congratulations Orla

16^th October 2009

Congratulations to Orla McNamara on passing her viva today. Orla is currently working in the group as a postdoctoral researcher for a large American pharmaceutical company.

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Congratulations Marie and David on graduating today.

10^th September 2009

Congratulations to David Foley and Marie Kissane on graduating today with their PhDs.  Dave made the long trip back from Indianapolis to join Marie on their special day, whereas Marie just walked across from the Kane Building.  We would like to wish both of them all the best in their future endeavours.

Reaction optimisation just got easier.

22^nd July 2009

For all the members of the group who optimise reactions, life just got a bit easier.  Today we took delivery of a Radleys "Carousel 6 Reaction Station", which should make finding the perfect conditions a bit easier.  The carousel accepts 5 ml to 250 ml flasks and can be used for reactions at both ambient and elevated temperatures.  All reactions can be placed under a positive pressure of inert gas if required through a central gas supply point.  The temperature of the block is controlled by a fuzzy logic temperature controller ensuring accurate reproducible reaction conditions.  All we need now is to put it to work....

Who needs liquid nitrogen?

21st July 2009

With the arrival of vacuubrands RC 6 chemistry-HYBRID^TM pump we don't.

The RC 6 chemistry-HYBRID^TM pump is a combination of a two-stage rotary vane pump and a two-stage chemistry diaphragm pump for optimized corrosion resistance. The diaphragm pump maintains the oil reservoir under vacuum in order to keep the partial pressures of solvent vapors at levels below their condensation points and to reduce largely the concentration of oxygen and corrosive gases.  This means that you have

• reduced internal corrosion, even when working with corrosive vapors
• oil changes typically reduced 90% or more compared with rotary vane pumps alone
• drastically reduced amount of waste oil for disposal due to extended service intervals and
• ease of maintenance due to telescopic design.

Nico Brondel departs the group.

17^th July 2009

It's a sad day as one of our longer serving postdoctoral researchers departs the group to return home to France.  Nico has worked on several projects during his term with the group the last of which was a collaboration with an external research oriented pharmaceutical company.  His quick wit will be missed at all future gatherings, but at least we have his last three going away parties to look forward to!  All the best Nico from the OPSRT.

Congratulations to Sinead Milner.

11^th July 2009

We would like to congratulate one of our postgraduate researchers, Sinead Milner, on the day of her wedding to Gerald O'Brien.  The wedding was attended by several members of the group who all had an excellent time at Sinead's expense!  Hopefully coming back to the laboratory won't be too much of a shock after her honeymoon abroad and we would like to wish her and Gerald all the best for the future.  Congrats...

Congratulations Marie

6^th July 2009

Congratulations to Marie Kissane for passing her viva today.  She is now fully qualified to continue her work within the group working in conjunction with a large american pharmaceutical company.

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Andy Osnowski departs the group.

20^th June 2009

It's with a heavy heart that we have to announce the departure of Andy from the group.  His love of the thistle has proven to great and he has decided to return to his native scotland to further his career.  We would like to wish Andy all the best for the future and hope that we will be hearing from him again soon.

Congratulations Denis Beecher

19^th June 2009

Congratulations to Denis Beecher for winning the prize for best poster at the 61st Irish Universities Chemistry Colloquium, held in DIT, with his poster entitled "A Chemoenzymatic Route to Enantiopure Hydroxytetrahydrofurans: Muscarine and its Analogues.".  His poster, one of over thirty entered, described work currently underway in the group that is being carried out in collaboration with Dr. Dan McCarthy.

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Congratulations to Orlagh O'Sullivan and Angela Stack on graduating today.

18^th June 2009

Congratulations to Angela and Orlagh on graduating with their PhDs today. Orlagh made the long trip from Indianapolis for this special occasion while Angela didn't have to travel quite so far.

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David Foley Departs

15^th May 2009

It had to happen eventually,  and now it has.  Dr. David Foley has been snapped up by an american pharmaceutical company and is heading off to the US to boost their flagging economy.  David (aka Dave, Folsey and Big Boy) will be sadly missed by all, in particular by the members of Synthos United.  We would like to wish Dave all the best for the future and let him know he's more than welcome to return if he ever gets the urge.

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Congratulations to Angela Stack

6^th March 2009

Congratulations to Angela Stack on passing her viva.  Angela has successfully managed to balance working full time for a large multinational pharmaceutical company with the demands of writing a thesis, and has now finally got her reward.

Congratulations to David (Dave) Foley

10^th February 2009

After many sleepless nights, long meetings and several heated pep talks Dave Foley has succeeded in getting over the last hurdle by passing his viva.  Dave a long serving member of the group is understandably delighted and is currently looking forward to moving stateside to join Orlagh in Eli Lilly in Indianapolis in the US.  His calming influence will be missed in the group and hopefully he will have a few weeks to enjoy his newfound free time before he has to depart.  All the best and congrats.

Orlagh O'Sullivan passes her viva

6^th January 2009

Congratulations to Orlagh O'Sullivan for sucessfully passing her viva.  This leaves her free to depart from the group and take up her new position with Eli Lily in Indianapolis, where I'm sure she'll have a large impact.

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Chromatography just got easier

13^th November 2008

As all chemists know one of the most time consuming and tedious tasks an organic chemist has to perform on a daily basis is chromatographic purification of mixtures of compounds.  It is with this in mind that I am very glad to announce the arrival of our latest piece of equipment, the Ana-logix Intelliflash³¹⁰.  The investment in this completely automated chromatographic system should ensure that it is no longer necessary for researchers to spend several hours of every day mixing solvents and TLCing fractions, leaving them free to plan their next reaction.  The system will have the beneficial affect of reducing the quantity of solvent required for each separation and will also reduce the exposure of researchers to dry silica, through the use of prepacked cartridges, which are safer and more convenient when if comes to disposal of the used silica.

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Eileen O'Leary graduates

10^th September 2008

Congratulations to Dr. Eileen O'Leary who after a long struggle finally graduated today.  Eileen spent one year working within the group as a "postdoctoral researcher" and has since decided to concentrate on teaching in any spare time that the recent addition to the O'Leary family allows.  Although no longer a member of the group we would like to wish Eileen well for the future and again congratulate her on her achievement.

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415 gets a facelift

21^st August 2008

After many years of long service, the historical home of the Organic and Pharmaceutical Synthesis Research Team, Lab. 415 of the Kane (Science) Building, is getting a well-deserved facelift.  This will be carried out in conjunction with the renovation of all of the synthetic labs on the fourth floor of the Kane Building along with other associated works.  The Lab (415) which has been in existence since the building opened in 1970 has served its occupants well over the years and will be missed in its current form.  Having said this a facelift was long overdue as years of service have taken their toll on the fixtures and fittings.  Unfortunately the name 415 will be no more once the re-vamp is complete, but despite this hopefully we can look forward to many fruitful years in "415" in its new form.

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Congratulations Padraig!

20^th August 2008

Congratulations to Padraig Kelly on successfully passing his viva.  Padraig a joint student between Prof. Anita Maguire and Dr. Simon Lawrence joined the group in 2002 to work on "Transition Metal Catalysed Asymmetric Oxidation of Sulfides" which yielded results that have been published in Synlett (2006 & 2007) and the European Journal of Organic Chemistry (2007).  Now that he can draw a line under his thesis, Padraig will have more time for his athletic pursuits.

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Marie Kissane wins 2008 Colloquium prize for Organic Oral Presentation

13^th June 2008

Congratulations to Marie Kissane on winning the prize for the best organic oral presentation at this years Irish Universities Chemistry Research Colloquium (60^th). Marie is pictured across with Prof. J. Glennon (left, Head of Department Chemistry UCC) and Dr. O. Ní Dhubhghaill (right, Head of Colloqium 2008 organising comittee). Photo courtesy of J. Ryan, Chemistry UCC.  Marie's talk was entitled "The Synthetic and Stereochemical Aspects of the Formation and Reactivity of 2-Thio-3-Chloroacrylamides" and included among other things details of her investigation of 2-Thio-3-Chloroacrylamides as dipolarophiles.

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Dr. Niamh O'Connell Presents Poster in Caen.

28-30^th May 2008

Dr. Niamh O'Connell presented a poster on her work toward the synthesis of individual Phyotsterols at the 17^th GP2A European Conference and the 22^nd Franco-Belgian Medicinal Chemistry Meeting, which were held concurrently from the 28-30^th of May 2008, in Caen, France.  Her poster described work currently underway in the group, which is being carried out in collaboration with Dr. Florence McCarthy* and Nora O'Brien.^#

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* Department of Chemistry and Analytical and Biological Chemistry Research Facility (ABCRF)

# Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, UCC, Cork.

Sarah O'Keeffe Graduates

12^th December 2007

Sarah pictured here with her supervisor Prof. Anita Maguire finally gets her day in red.

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Jay Chopra Graduates

12^th December 2007

After many years of balancing working in a large pharmaceutical company and trying to write up his thesis, Jay finally made it to the finishing line and graduated.

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Chemistry Cheese and Wine

6^th December 2007

For the fourth year running the chemistry departments cheese and wine was a fancy dress event and once again the researchers dispelled the myth that scientists do not have a sense of humour by turning up as everything from captain planet to a french woman!