Institute of Organic and Analytical Chemistry (ICOA)

The main objective of the laboratory’s research activities is finding and developing novel bioactive molecules having potential applications as drugs, PET imaging agents, probes for in vivo imaging, or as components of cosmetics formulation. The scientific approach to these new molecules involves design by molecular modelling techniques, preparation by organic synthesis, with a particular emphasis on heterocyclic compounds, carbohydrate derivatives and nucleoside analogs, extraction from plant material using high performance separation techniques and mass spectrometry analysis, and by enzymology, in order to identify and characterize the receptors of certain bioactive molecules.

Research topics

•    Chemoinformatics, modeling, IA
•    Glycomolecules: from synthesis to enzymology
•    Heterocyclic synthesis and medicinal chemistry
•    Modified Nucleosides
•    Extraction, analysis of bioactive molecules
•    Chemical biology probes (PROTAC, fluorescence and covalent probes, metabolites)
•    Imaging agents design (Near IR, IRM, TEP, ...)

Equipment and technology

• NMR spectrometers at 400 MHz and 250 MHz
• HRMS Q-Tof MaXis mass spectrometer with ESI, APCI, APPI, and nano-ESI sources
• MALDI-TOF
• Thermophoresis
• Three triple-quadrupole mass spectrometers with ESI, APCI, and APPI sources
• Separation techniques including HPLC, nano-LC, UPLC, SFC, GC, EC, HPTLC, and CPC, as well as light-scattering detectors (DEDL)
• Microwave, continuous-flow, sonication, and photochemistry devices
• UV oven
• Centrifuges
• Flash chromatography system
• Dell PowerEdge R710 CPU cluster and Xeon Gold processors, with NVIDIA TESLA K20, K80, GTX Titan Z, RTX 2080, and RTX 3090 GPU cards
• Glassblowing workshop

The research teams rely on three platforms (SALSA, biochemistry, and chemical library), which support both internal and external projects.