Albert Eschenmoser

Even if It could be shown that RNA preceded both DNA and proteins in the march toward living things that doesn t automatically make RNA the first self replicating molecule Another possibility is that a self replicating polynucleotide based on some carbo hydrate other than o ribose was a precursor to RNA Over many generations natural selection could have led to the replacement of the other carbohydrate by D ribose giving RNA Recent research on unnatural polynucleotides by Professor Albert Eschenmoser of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Zurich) has shown for example that nucleic acids based on L threose possess many of the properties of RNA and DNA... 

If you think some of the synthesis problems at the end of this chapter are hard, try devising a synthesis of vitamin B12 starting only from simple substances you can buy in a chemical catalog. This extraordinary achievement was reported in 1973 as the culmination of a collaborative effort headed by Robert B. Woodward of Harvard University and Albert Eschenmoser of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. More than 100 graduate students and postdoctoral associates contributed to the w ork, which took more than a decade. 

A ray of hope appeared when a synthetic route was developed in the laboratory of Albert Eschenmoser in Zurich, leading in good yields to ribose-2,4-diphosphate (in racemic form). The starting material was glycol aldehyde, which was phospho-rylated in the 2-position and then incubated with formaldehyde. Unfortunately the synthetic conditions are only those of a modern laboratory, but could the reaction have taken place on the primeval Earth (Muller et al., 1990). 

Oligonucleotides with modified sugar components are another alternative to PNAs work in this direction was begun by Albert Eschenmoser, a famous synthetic chemist who was interested in the question as to why nature chose certain biomolecules for the processes of life and not others (Eschenmoser, 1991). This group carried out studies on the sugar components of the nucleic acids, in order to find out why D-ribose was used rather than another sugar. 

Richard T. Arnold Henry E. Baumgarten Richard E. Benson Virgil Boekelheide Ronald Breslow Arnold Brossi George H. BQchi T. L. Cairns James Cason Orville L. Chapman Robert M. Coates E. J. Corey William G. Dauben William D. Emmons Albert Eschenmoser... 

William Fraser was born in Hamilton. He studied at the other of the two local universities, Strathclyde, where he obtained a first class B.Sc. honors degree in 1986 and Ph.D. in 1989 under the direction of Professor Colin J. Suckling and Professor Hamish C. S. Wood. He was awarded a Royal Society European Exchange Postdoctoral Fellowship and worked in the laboratories of Professor Albert Eschenmoser at the ETH, Zurich. In 1991, he took up his present position as lecturer in medicinal chemistry at Aston University, Birmingham. His scientific interests include nucleoside and nucleic acid chemistry, solid-supported, synthesis, and study of base-modified antigene oligonucleotides targeted to DNA. 

BOARD OF EDITORS Kenneth B. Wiberg, Editor-in-Chief Richard E. Benson Albert Eschenmoser... 

Wick, A. E. Felix, D. Steen, K. Eschenmoser, A. Helv. Chim. Acta 1964, 47, 2425. Albert Eschenmoser (Switzerland, 1925-) is best known for his work on, among many others, the monumental total synthesis of Vitamin B12 with R. B. Woodward in 1973. He now holds appointments at ETH Zurich and Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla. Felix, D. Gschwend-Steen, K. Wick, A. E. Eschenmoser, A. Helv. Chim. Acta 1969, 52, 1030. 

Ronald Breslow Arnold Brossi Albert Eschenmoser Herbert O. House... 

Albert Eschenmoser Ian Fleming E. C. Horning Herbe.rt O. House Robert E. Ireland Carl R. Johnson William S. Johnson Andrew S. Kende N. J. Leonard B. C. McKusick Satoru Masamunf. 

A number of colleagues were very kind and helpful with their advice. I would like to thank Antonio Lazcano, and Albert Eschenmoser, who in different ways helped me with their frank comments and Meir Lahav, Joseph Ribo, Jeffrey Bada, and David Deamer. Particular thanks are due to Dr. Pasquale Stano, whose help has been essenhal, particularly, but not only, with the bibliography also Rachel Fajella helped with the editing of some parts of the manuscript. I am also particularly indebted to Angelo Merante for the illustrahons and the formatting of the manuscript without him, the manuscript would shll be in my drawers. Last, but not least, I want to thank my students of the University of Rome 3, their positive feedback at the very early stages of the manuscript was very important. 

C F H Allen Richard T Arnold Henry E Baumgarten Richard E Benson A H Blatt Virgil Boekelheide Ronald Breslow Arnold Brossi T L Cairns James Cason E J Corey William G Dauben William D Emmons Albert Eschenmoser R C busoN Henry Gilman E C Horning Herbert O House Robert E Ireland... 

Wohler s urea to the synthesis of Vitamin Bi2 by Robert B. Woodward [1.3] and Albert Eschenmoser [1.4] assisted by a hundred or so collaborators ... 

Albert Eschenmoser Herbert 0. Hccse Kenneth B. Wiberg Peter Yates... 

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