ChemTwitter told us it takes 3 minutes to run a TLC plate, so today we‘re bringing you 3 good minutes with David Thaisrivongs (Director) and Jenny Obligacion (Associate Principal Scientist) from our Rahway, NJ Process Chemistry group. David and Jenny tell us about a symposia featuring Outstanding Chemists of Color, their motivation for creating this event and the broader implications highlighting Chemists of Color can have on the equity, diversity and inclusion in our field. Complete speaker...

ChemTwitter told us it takes 3 minutes to run a TLC plate, so today we‘re bringing you 3 good minutes with Marion Emmert (Principal Scientist, Catalysis and Enabling Technologies) and Colin Lam (Associate Principal Scientist, Computational and Structural Chemistry). Marion joined #MerckChemistry in 2018 (after a successful career in academia) and has brought her love for catalysis into drug discovery (Google Scholar). Colin joined #MerckChemistry in 2016 and has flexed his computational might...

ChemTwitter told us it takes 3 minutes to run a TLC plate, so today we‘re bringing you 3 good minutes with Xiaoshen Ma, Associate Principal Scientist in our Boston Discovery Chemistry group. Xiaoshen joined #MerckChemistry in 2018 and has been influential in advancing drug discovery through the exploration of bicyclo[1.1.1]pentanes (aka BCP's) as bioisosteres for arenes - the work of which is already making an impact (Google Scholar). Today, Xiaoshen stopped by to give a sneak peak on...

For the 8th course, Dani and LC ride the biocatalytic cascade with Ania Fryszkowska (@fryania on Twitter) and Greg Hughes (@greg_hughes on Twitter) from the #MerckChemistry Process Chemistry group. Greg, a process chemistry pro, kicks off this episode by giving a high-level overview of the drug development process and the differences in designing clinical supply route vs. a final commercial route. Ania, a biocatalysis superstar, then takes us on a retrosynthetic journey that ultimately led to...

For the 7th course, Dani and LC serve up a hearty helping of nucleoside chemistry with Artis Klapars and Dan DiRocco from the #MerckChemistry Rahway NJ Process Chemistry group. We tee off this episode by diving into the ProTide pool to find out what exactly ProTides are why they are so important for the development of common antiviral and anticancer drugs. Then, Artis and Dan tell us about their efforts to develop a green solution to the ProTide synthesis problem by designing a...

For the 6th course, Dani and LC serve up a delicious discussion with Steve Silverman (@asymtmm on Twitter) from the #MerckChemistry Kenilworth NJ Discovery Process Chemistry group. Steve tells us about an industrial-academic collaboration he's leading with Professor Rob Britton's laboratory at Simon Fraser University (@BrittonLab on Twitter) where they discovered a short de novo route to nucleoside analogs. We discuss why nucleoside analogues are so important to pharmaceutical development and...

For the 6th course, Dani and LC serve up a delicious discussion with Steve Silverman (@asymtmm on Twitter) from the #MerckChemistry Kenilworth NJ Discovery Process Chemistry group. Steve tells us about an industrial-academic collaboration he's leading with Professor Rob Britton's laboratory at Simon Fraser University (@BrittonLab on Twitter) where they discovered a short de novo route to nucleoside analogs. We discuss why nucleoside analogues are so important to pharmaceutical development and...

For our special Holiday Snack episode we invite Eric Ashley (Director of Discovery Process Chemistry, @DrERAChem), Yeon-Hee Lim (Director of Discovery Chemistry, @alchemistyhl) and James Roane (Senior Scientist, Discovery Chemistry) from our South San Francisco research laboratories to join us and answer YOUR questions! What topics or case studies to help students understand drug discovery better? What was the most surprising thing about starting your career and navigating the transition...

ChemTwitter told us it takes 3 minutes to run a TLC plate, so today we‘re brining you 3 good minutes with Cecilia Bottecchia, Senior Scientist in Flow Chemistry group. Cecilia joined #MerckChemistry a little >2 years ago bringing her flow experience to Merck and immediately having an impact  (Google Scholar). She was recently the co-recipient of the Peter Dunn Green Chemistry Award for the development of a greener manufacturing process featuring a photo-flow bromination. We discuss her...

For the 5th course, join Dani and LC as they sit down with #MerckChemistry's Meg Shaw and Chihui An to discuss their biocatalytic approach in transforming readily available acrylic acids to chiral α-substituted carboxylic acids - a reoccurring motif in drug development. As this story evolved (no pun intended),  we’ll hear how Meg (Process Chemistry) and Chihui (Biocatalysis) joined forces to develop an ene-reductase (ERED) to effect the asymmetric reduction of acrylic acids and ultimately why...

ChemTwitter told us it takes 3 minutes to run a TLC plate, so today we‘re brining you 3 good minutes with Becky Ruck, Executive Director and Head of Enabling Technologies in Small Molecule Process R&D. Becky has amassed an amazing portfolio of amazing science (Google Scholar) in a variety of roles at #MerckChemistry. She recently took on a role as a Topic Editor for ACS Catalysis to help bring more industrial science to the journal. Having led recruiting for many years, Becky gives...

For our 4th course, we sit down with Dipa Kalyani to chat about her journey from a tenured professor position at St-Olaf to associate principal scientist within our Discovery organization via an academic-industrial collaboration with Dani. This episode explores how pairing state-of-the-art capabilities in HTE (the high-throughput experimentation kind) with great problem selection can lead to a nice impactful method for direct arylation of heterocycles with pharmaceutically relevant aryl...

ChemTwitter told us it takes 3 minutes to run a TLC plate, so today we‘re brining you 3 good minutes with Patrick Fier, Principal Scientist in Process Chemistry. Patrick has a had a roaring start to his career at Merck in the last 5 years (Google Scholar) and was just named to C&EN's Talented 12 for 2021. Building on this season's Episode 2: Phenols and Sulfonamides are Cool, Patrick returns to the pod to discuss this recognition and answer the real important questions, like: Who did he...

For our 3rd course we serve up another #MerckChemistry duo, Libby Hennessy (aka Simon) and Aaron Sather (aka Garfunkel) who join us to discuss their discovery of a new way to access N-(hetero)aryl piperidines. We'll discover how to convince your grandma why piperidines are so important to drug discovery and learn how chemistry advances are made at the interface of Process and Medicinal Chemistry at Merck. We'll also dive into the Merck Future Talents program which brings in interns to come...

ChemTwitter told us it takes 3 minutes to run a TLC plate, so today we‘re brining you 3 good minutes with Jamie McCabe Dunn, Director of Process Chemistry who, on top of delivering amazing science (Google Scholar), is also leading recruiting of new hires for our Process Chemistry teams. While this episode is short, we get answers to some serious questions such as “Is South Dakota considered the Midwest or central USA?”; “Will building a network really impact my chances of getting a job?”; and...

ChemTwitter told us it takes 3 minutes to run a TLC plate, so today we‘re brining you 3 good minutes with Ania Fryszkowska, a biocatalysis whiz who recently co-authored an article in Science on innovative biocatalytic cascades to access sugars (link HERE). While this episode is short, we get answers to some serious questions such as “which Nobel laureate zoom-bombed the Virtual Biocatalysis and Protein Engineering Meetups?”; “what does the future of biocatalysis hold?”; and most importantly...

For our 2nd course, a #winning #MerckChemistry duo, Patrick Fier and Kevin Maloney, join us to discuss their discovery of the Maloney-Fier reaction (campaigning to be in the 2nd edition of the indispensable Strategic Applications of Named Reaction in Organic Synthesis by Kurti/Czako)  as well as other projects they've collaborated on in the last few years. We'll uncover why these two work so well together and how they balance exploring scientific curiosities while having day jobs as...

Every great meal starts with an inspiration.... Find out how Pharm to Table was created from an idea to our release. You'll find out how we gathered all the essential ingredients - including our name, logo, music and also folks that gave us great advice along the way. You will also get to meet a key early contributor, our Merck Future Talent program intern Jimmy Olsen (now a graduate student with Professor John Wood at Baylor!), who helped us get off the ground last year! Follow the Pharm...

For our 1st course (and inaugural episode!!), Dani and L.-C. serve up the true Pharm to Table experience by discussing the importance of academic-industrial collaborations through the lens of their comment piece published in Nature Chemistry titled “Harder, Better, Faster.” This article struck a cord with a lot of folks in the chemistry community (>22k views) and created a social media buzz where academics and industrial scientists debated the age old question “Why don’t you use my [insert...

Another teaser! Here is our delicious theme song. Thanks to Mark Partridge (twitter: @markrightmedia) for this original piece! One more week to the launch! The 1st episode drops July 5th. Please subscribe so you never miss new content.

Check out our trailer! Join L.-C. Campeau and Dani Schultz as they explore the amazing stories and people behind the papers from #MerckChemistry. We promise to always bring tasty (pun intended) #MerckChemistry content to our table that is guaranteed to have you coming back for another dose (pun intended, again). Subscribe to get all our new episodes.