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When we think of the Chemistry of Life we probably think about how we got here but what about the Chemistry of everyday life? What about the chemistry that helps feeding the world’s increasing population and keeps saving lives by improving and developing new drugs? Well, with talks from researchers of Cardiff’s Chemistry department we’ll find out how! Hear about the latest, exciting research that is keeping our lives going.
Catalysis: putting food on the table
Dr Andrew Logsdail
(Research Fellow)
Catalysis is a key technology for the modern society, leading to lower product costs, less energy consumption and less pollution - you might not realise it, but we all benefit from catalysis every single day! In this talk, I’ll illustrate the importance of catalysis in our day-to-day by dissecting a typical pub dinner and discussing where catalysis has been used. Furthermore, I’ll discuss how future catalysts are being designed and tested without even needing to go in the laboratory, through the use of computational simulation on some of the world’s biggest computers.
Magic mirror on the wall
Dr Niek Buurma
(Lecturer in Physical Organic Chemistry)
Some drugs can exist as two mirror images that behave the same outside the body, but differently inside the body. For example, one mirror image may cure a disease while the other causes side effects and I will explain how this is possible.
To reduce the risk of side effects, only one of the mirror images of a drug is
normally given to patients. For some molecules, however, the mirror images turn into each other. We have studied this process and created a predictive model of how quickly this happens for new molecules, so that drugs can be made safe by design.
To reduce the risk of side effects, only one of the mirror images of a drug is
normally given to patients. For some molecules, however, the mirror images turn into each other. We have studied this process and created a predictive model of how quickly this happens for new molecules, so that drugs can be made safe by design.
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