Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/C536843/1
Title:	High-Throughput screening of diverse families of ligands in asymmetric catalysis
Principal Investigator:	Clarke, Professor ML
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Chemistry
Organisation:	University of St Andrews
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	14 June 2005	Ends:	13 June 2008	Value (£):	32,535
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Asymmetric Chemistry
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Chemicals Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology
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Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
There are severe time restrictions on the development of a preparative route to a new drug in the pharmaceutical industry. A major demand in this industry (and in organic synthesis in general) is the preparation of compounds as a single optical isomer. Optical isomers are chemical compounds that are mirror images of each other (They are related like left and right hands). The most environmentally friendly method to make single optical isomer compounds is to use a tiny amount of a catalyst that is also a single optical isomer (an 'asymmetric catalyst') to promote some chemical reaction that converts the starting materials into a single optical isomer product. Although the use of asymmetric catalysts will often represent the most efficient, environmentally friendly and even the most cost effective method to deliver single optical isomer compounds, they are still rarely used as a result of the considerable amount of time needed to identify the ideal catalyst for the reaction under study. Consequently, there has been ever expanding interest in the rapid synthesis and screening of large families of catalysts in asymmetric chemical reactions. The ability to analyse reaction products is a key to this endeavour with chiral chromatography proving the most universally applied technique for relatively high-throughput analysis. There are several projects in St Andrews which focus on the preparation of focussed families of asymmetric catalysts for application in some of the more challenging (and industrially relevant) asymmetric reactions. The provision of an HPLC machine will enable us to properly exploit the potential of these projects which at present are hampered by using time consuming, out of date methods of analysis.
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Organisation Website:	http://www.st-and.ac.uk