Organic Chemistry Hand in Hand with Pharmaceuticals  

The field of medicine encompasses much more than physicians, nurses and pharmacists. Behind their work with patients is a very complex world of researchers who are continuously trying to improve medical techniques and drugs to be used for treating patients. One of the most outstanding advances is the success in synthesizing a new organic molecule (future drug) that can fight certain diseases or relieve discomfort. One of the best examples is the synthesis of human insulin through biotechnology carried out in 1978, and which has since saved thousands of lives. This molecule was, in fact, discovered and isolated 66 years earlier in 1922 by Frederick Banting and Charles Best, two Canadian chemists who shared the Nobel Prize in 1923. In like manner, Dr. Pierre Deslongchamps has put his expertise in organic chemistry at the service of pharmacology and the advancement of medicine.

A native of the Laurentians in Quebec, Dr. Deslongchamps received a Bachelor of Chemistry degree from the Université de Montréal, followed by a doctorate from the University of New Brunswick, and spent a post-doctoral year at Harvard. He began his career as a professor at the Université de Montréal in 1965 and settled permanently at the Université de Sherbrooke two years later. This veteran scientist, who has received multiple awards (including the Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering), owes his reputation to his expertise in synthesizing polycyclic organic molecules in the laboratory. He will tell you that his greatest success was the synthesis of ryanodol, carried out in 1979 when he was 41 years old. This is because this extremely complex molecule, from the plant known as Ryania speciosa vahl, required the adoption of new strategies for synthesis and an approach that was novel and revolutionary at the time. 

His exceptional understanding of molecular synthesis led him to develop "the theory of stereoelectronic control of reactions." The theory is aimed at showing the importance of the three-dimensional shape of molecules and its influence on their reactivity. 

This theory was made famous in his book entitled Stereoelectronic Effects in Organic Chemistry. It was also through these new strategies that he succeeded in synthesizing the antibiotic, erythromycin-A, as well as a number of other molecules. At the time of these achievements, the goal was not to commercialize the synthesized product (already produced on a large scale by bacteria in a culture medium), but rather to develop new techniques as potential applications in medicine.  

Perhaps you think Dr. Deslongchamps is satisfied with these achievements and is now resting on his laurels. You’ll have to think again! This renowned scientist directs a team of eighteen university student researchers, supported by seven chemistry technicians. His new areas of study are the organic synthesis of steroids and terpenes (through transannular Diels-Alder reactions) as well as anionic polycyclization. And that’s not all! Dr. Deslongchamps has recently founded a company called Néokimia Inc. This firm is a pharmaceutical research and development laboratory and its mission is to discover new bioactive molecules through a combinatorial approach to synthesis chemistry  leading to the development of new drugs. Through Néokimia, and with more than twenty other chemical scientists working on his projects, the biomedical applications of Dr. Deslongchamps’ discoveries will not be long in coming. And a final piece of news that everyone expects to hear soon is that  Dr. Deslongchamps, who has been nominated several times, will finally be awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry.