Chiral Drugs on the Chemistry Blog

Yesterday we started Stereochemistry in my Organic Class, and on Monday Azmanam on the Chemistry Blog had a post on  Chiral Drugs.  Take a look at the structures below:

Both are used to treat gastroesophageal reflux desease (GERD, commonly known as acid reflux).  Can you see the difference in the structures?  Click the image to see a larger version.  Prilosec is sold as a racemic mixture: a 50-50 mix of the R and S enantiomers.  Nexium contains just one enantiomer - the S isomer.  This is an example of a chiral molecule whose stereogenic center is not a carbon, but rather a sulfur.  The fourth group attached to the sulfur - the one with the lowest priority - is a lone pair of electrons.  Read Azmanam 's post for a good discussion of the two.


Chemistry Blog - Nexium’s Dirty Little Secret

George Whitesides Discusses Designing a "Lab on a Stamp"

This talk is listed at the Ted.com site as "A Lab the Size of a Postage Stamp," but it should really be "A ON a Postage Stamp."  He talks about the ingenious way his group has designed "devices" for medical diagnostics from paper.  This makes it very inexpensive as well as easily disposable - no sharps or bio-waste to worry about, you can just burn the device when you are done.

George Whitesides is an Organic Chemist from Harvard - I would love to hear him talk about his work on Self-Assembly, but this is pretty cool too.  To quote from his Bio at Ted:

He's co-founded a nonprofit called Diagnostics for All that aims to provide dirt-cheap diagnostic devices, to provide healthcare in a world where cost is everything.

While sharing some of his experience, he also has some interesting observations of the nature of our society, given that the cost of healthcare has been such a topic of discussion lately.

32 Years Without Small Pox

It has been 32 years since a case of Small Pox was last diagnosed.  According to Wikipedia:

The last naturally occurring case of indigenous smallpox (Variola minor) was diagnosed in Ali Maow Maalin, a hospital cook in Merca, Somalia, on 26 October 1977. The last naturally occurring case of the more deadly Variola major had been detected in October 1975 in a two-year-old Bangladeshi girl, Rahima Banu.

We have heard a lot about vaccines in the last few years.  The fact is: vaccines work. The Variola major version of Small Pox has (had?) a mortality rate of 30-35% - out of every three people who got the virus, one died.  In the 20th century, it is estimated that 300-500 million deaths were caused by small pox.  Because of the small pox vaccine, no one gets this disease. Anywhere in the world.

(Image: wikimedia commons)

Via An Anniversary Worth Celebrating – Neatorama