We were not inactive during the summer break and have two more publications to report.
The first study, a collaboration between Flaminia Mazzone, Moritz Klischan and Julian Greb, is dedicated to the investigation of putative drug candidates for the treatment of toxoplasmosis. To this end, a number of monomeric and dimeric chalcones were investigated. Particularly noteworthy is a bichalcone with phenyl- and methyl-substituted groups, which showed a strong and selective inhibition of parasite growth in the nanomolar range. These results indicate that bichalcones are promising candidates for further in vivo research of anti-toxoplasma agents.
The second publication by Moritz Weber et al. presents a protecting group-free synthesis of a branched biotin bis-azide that enables dual late-phase functionalization with alkynes via click chemistry. The applicability of this method was demonstrated using a Pittsburgh B analog that binds to pathological protein aggregates involved in neurodegenerative diseases.
We would like to congratulate all those involved on their outstanding publications and express our sincere thanks for the successful collaboration.