The results of a survey by Coalesce Corporation in the USA into barriers to performing organic synthesis reactions may well be of interest to the PI community. The outcomes are presented below, and I am sure the organisation would welcome feedback via the contacts at the end of this article.
What are your major obstacles (up to 3) you must overcome for performing organic synthesis reactions? [multi-select]
| Obstacles | Percent of Respondents |
| Too many experiments to obtain kinetics data | 38.5 |
| Complicated extractive sampling and offline measurements | 28.2 |
| Must improve process quality and robustness | 20.5 |
| Timely determining of reaction initiation and/or endpoint | 20.5 |
| Need to increase productivity and data turnaround without new hires | 17.9 |
| Reducing risks in optimization of highly reactive chemistry | 10.3 |
| Other | 12.8 |
What impact on your overall productivity are these obstacles costing your organization?
| Productivity Loss | Percent of Responses |
| High (11-15%) to Extreme (over 15%) | 41.0 |
| Moderate: 6 to 10% | 35.9 |
| Low (1-5%) to None | 23.1 |
| Total | 100.0 |
What solutions, you consider, would best help overcome these challenges?
| Solutions | Percent of Respondents |
| Infra-Red in situ and in realtime monitoring, including in aqueous environments | 35.9 |
| Low pressure automated personal synthesis workstation (1-4 reactions) | 30.8 |
| Flow Reactors | 25.6 |
| High pressure automated personal synthesis workstation (1-4 reactions) | 12.8 |
| Parallel pressure reactors (4-96 reactions) | 10.3 |
| Raman spectroscopy in-situ and in real time monitoring | 10.3 |
| Other | 10.3 |
Optional: Could you share with us and the organic chemistry community what you have tried that was successful and what have you tried unsuccessfully to address one or more of the challenges you have chosen above?
Organization #1: Mid-size University (Germany)
"We track chemical reactions (mainly synthesis of steroids and dyes) in the classical manner by thin layer chromatography. I guess that this is the most efficient approach, at least in our case."
Organization #2: Large Research Institute (Germany)
"On-column Reaction Chromatography Multiplexing Chromatography"
Organization #3: Large University (UK)
"Various reactions have been quickly optimized using flow reactors"
Organization #4: Large Pharma (US)
"16 4 Unit Chemistry Automated Platforms which are used to perform Design of Experiments. Autosamples are pulled and kinetic information is then obtained."
Organization #5: Small CRO (US)
"I can not be specific for proprietary reasons, but the easiest way for me was just to design better chemistry."
Some Additional Needs Raised by the Community:
Organization #1: Mid-size University (Germany)
"A better financing of our institute..."
Organization #2: Mid-size University (US)
"Grant funding for synthesis at PUI/MCU institutions, including for Postdocs"
Organization #3: Large Pharma (US)
"Data analysis tools that analyze large quantities of data in a short time"
Organization #4: Mid-size University (Germany)
"Online-sampling and automated derivatization"
To discuss any of these results and solutions which have proven successful or not successful,
Please contact:
Keith Bogdon, M.Sc., J.D.
Advanced Technology Advisor
Coalesce Corporation
447 Miller Ave, Suite E
Mill Valley, CA 94941, USA
Direct telephone #: (415) 384-3042
keith.bogdon@coalesce.com
www.coalesce.com
"Coalesce's Mission is to work interactively with scientific communities, government agencies, world health organizations and foundations, technology developers and investment groups to seek out and implement emerging technologies and services to overcome scientific barriers hampering the rapid creation of better materials, medicines and diagnostics."
