In the preparation of biomimetic materials it is often required that efficient methods of polymerization be used, often methods that can lead to biomimetic polymers with relatively narrow molecular weight distribution. Living radical polymerization techniques have successfully been used to create low polydispersity linear polymers by free-radical polymerizations. Although this technique slows d...

The polyprenoids, which represent the largest family of natural products in the living world, are biogenic compounds that derive from the assemblage and modification of fivecarbon isoprene units. Some polyprenoids, such as cholesterol in animals, phytosterols in plants or hopanoids and -dihydroxylated carotenoids in Bacteria (Fig. 1), are of paramount importance in biological membranes, wher...

Concise biomimetic syntheses of the antimalarial naphthoquinones (+/-)-pinnatal and (+/-)-sterekunthal A are described.

A short synthesis of the revised structure of the marine natural product tridachiahydropyrone is described. A novel biomimetic photochemical electrocyclization was employed to construct the bicyclic carbon framework from an open-chain polyene precursor. The spectroscopic data matched that of the isolated natural product, supporting a revised structure of this complex metabolite.

The creation of nanoscale materials for advanced structures has led to a growing interest in the area of biomineralization. Numerous microorganisms are capable of synthesizing inorganic-based structures. For example, diatoms use amorphous silica as a structural material, bacteria synthesize magnetite (Fe3O4) particles and form silver nanoparticles, and yeast cells synthesize cadmium sulphide na...

Abstract: The presence of rather complicated alkaloids in Nitraria species as racemates suggests a non-enzymic biosynthesis of the skeletons, which implies that these reactions should be reproducible in the lab. In the case of Nitramine and Nitraramine the total synthesis was approached starting from highly symmemc glutarimide derivatives. Insight in the biosynthesis of Nitraria alkaloids led t...

Novel biomimetic surfactants based on cholesterol as the hydrophobic segment and poly[2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl phosphorylcholine] (pMPC) as the hydrophilic segment were synthesized in the present study by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of 2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) using a cholesterol-based macroinitiator. The association behavior of cholesterol-block-poly[2-(...

A one-pot synthesis of tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids in a phosphate buffer has been achieved, and a reaction mechanism proposed. The utilisation of mild reaction conditions readily afforded a range of isoquinolines, including norcoclaurine.