CHEMIST VIEW OF LIFE
Carbon: The backbone of life
•Organic chemistry is the study of carbon compounds
•Carbon atoms can form diverse molecules by
bonding to four other atoms
Organic chemistry is the study of
carbon compounds
The term “organic” chemistry came from the
misconception that carbon-based
compounds were always connected to life
It mostly involves CHOPNS
Carbon atoms can form diverse
molecules by bonding to four
other atoms
The key to an atom’s chemical characteristics is its
electron configuration
Carbon’s valence shell is half-full…or is it half-empty?
Carbon atoms can form diverse
molecules by bonding to four
other atoms
Carbon usually completes its valence shell by sharing
electrons with other atoms in covalent bonds
These bonds can be single
•Tetrahedral shape
Carbon atoms can form diverse
molecules by bonding to four
other atoms
Carbon usually completes its valence shell by sharing
electrons with other atoms in covalent bonds
Carbon can also form double bonds
•Forms when two electrons are shared between two
atoms
•Forms a flat molecule
Molecular diversity arising from
carbon skeleton variation
Sources of diversity:
• Chain length
• Branching
• Double bonds
Molecular diversity arising from
carbon skeleton variation
Sources of diversity:
• Chain length
• Branching
• Double bonds
• Ring formation
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1901
Jacobus H. van 't Hoff
In recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the
discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure
in solutions
van't Hoff during his thesis work in Utrecht in 1874 published his suggestion that the carbon
atom has its four valences directed towards the corners of a regular tetrahedron, a concept
which is the very foundation of modern organic chemistry.
The Nobel Prize was, however, awarded for his later work on chemical kinetics and equilibria
and on the osmotic pressure in solution.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1902
Hermann Emil Fischer
In recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his work on sugar
and purine syntheses.
Fischer's work is an example of the growing interest from organic chemists in biologically
important substances, thus laying the foundation for the development of biochemistry, and at
the time of the award Fischer mainly devoted himself to the study of proteins.
Hermann Emil Fischer
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1907
Eduard Buchner
For his biochemical researches and his discovery of cell-free fermentation
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1946
James Batcheller Sumner
for his discovery that
enzymes can be
crystallized
John Howard Northrop
Wendell Meredith Stanley
for their preparation of enzymes and
virus proteins in a pure form
Perutz's greatest achievement was demonstrating that the method of 'isomorphous
replacement', previously used to solve the structures of small organic compounds, could
be used to crack the 'phase problem' in protein crystallography.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1958
Frederick Sanger
for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin
Edman degradation
Phenylisothiocyanate is reacted with an uncharged terminal amino group, under mildly alkaline conditions, to form a cyclical
phenylthiocarbamoyl derivative. under acidic conditions, this derivative of the terminal amino acid is cleaved as a thiazolinone derivative.
The thiazolinone amino acid is then selectively extracted into an organic solvent and treated with acid to form the more stable
phenylthiohydantoin (PTH)- amino acid derivative that can be identified by using chromatography or electrophoresis. This procedure can
then be repeated again to identify the next amino acid.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1980
Paul Berg
for his fundamental studies of the
biochemistry of nucleic acids, with
particular regard to recombinantDNA"
Walter Gilbert
Frederick Sanger
for their contributions concerning the
determination of base sequences in nucleic
acids"
X-ray crystallography shows the arrangement of water molecules in ice, revealing the
hydrogen bonds that hold the solid together.
Fluorescent end labeling of DNA