Congratulations to Dr Marcus Baumann, University College Dublin and partner Almac for receiving SSPC’s Industry Impact of the Year award 2021, kindly sponsored by biopharmachem Ireland. Dr Baumann has a strong focus to maximise impact of world-class knowledge developed within Irish research bases and to share this with industrial collaborators.

Through this partnership with Almac, Dr Baumann’s research has expanded to include a new strand of biotechnology/biocatalysis and this partnership also provides vital support for early career researcher and the investigators in setting up the lab.

UCD/School of Chemistry has benefited from successful PhD (3) and PDRA (1) applications and Dr Baumann has established flow chemistry in undergraduate teaching and postgraduate research at UCD, which enables training of postgraduates in new synthesis/flow technologies of critical importance to the Irish chemical industry.

Commenting on the partnership, Prof. Tom Moody, VP Technology Development and Commercialisation, Dr Scott Wharry, Custon and Flow Chemistry Manager and Dr Megan Smyth, Team Leader at Almac said:

“Our collaboration with Dr Baumann commenced in 2020 with a prestigious Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Industry Fellowship. The Industry Fellowship Programme has significantly enhanced our industry-­academia collaboration through funding of research projects focused on knowledge exchange to drive excellence and innovation throughout Ireland. The project CATCH – derived from fontinuous biocatalysed chemicals – underlines a commitment to develop new sustainable methodologies that enables the competitive, and environmentally friendly, manufacture of chemical intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APls) via the synergetic marriage of continuous flow and biocatalytic processes.”

“Flow chemistry is a disruptive innovation within the pharma industry and the cross disciplinary approach is resulting in new avenues in reaction chemistry. Accessing chemistries, which were previously deemed too difficult or hazardous to scale in batch, has been a major win for flow chemistry, in particular high-energy transformations such as the Curtius rearrangement. The success of the collaboration with Dr Baumann has been disseminated particularly effectively, with six peer reviewed publications since 2020, multiple oral talks, poster presentations in Ireland, UK & Japan and has allowed us to showcase the methodology on a global stage.”

“Through the successful application of technology solutions, Almac and UCD are truly at the heart of the necessary drive for green pharmaceutical manufacture.”

This collaboration has led to many outputs:

• Joint funding applications since 2020 [SFI FF call, SSPC co-funded PhD, IRC Enterprise PhD call, HEA-NS call] – some already funded;
• Joint supervision of postgraduates (so far 1 MSc, 1 PhD; 2 PhD+1 PDRA in 2022 via SFI FF award);
• Increased visibility of this intersectoral collaboration within and beyond British Isles
• Joint link to Prof. Hyster at Princeton/Cornell – attracts further expertise to Ireland via this link;
• Joint peer-reviewed publications (6 so far) and invited talks on collaborative work (5 for Maruc, 4 by Almac at industrial symposia)

Six joint publications:

Interrupted Curtius Rearrangements of Quaternary Proline Derivatives: A Flow Route to Acyclic Ketones and Unsaturated Pyrrolidines, Baumann, M.; Moody, TS; Smyth, M. Wharry, S. Oct 15 2021 | JOURNAL OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 86 (20) , pp.14199-14206.

Evaluating the Green Credentials of Flow Chemistry towards Industrial Applications, Baumann, M.; Moody, TS; Smyth, M. Wharry, S. Nov 3 2021 | Jun 2021 (Early Access) | SYNTHESIS-STUTTGART 53 (21) , pp.3963-3976.

Tandem Continuous Flow Curtius Rearrangement and Subsequent Enzyme-Mediated Impurity Tagging, Baumann, M.; Leslie, A; Moody, TS; Smyth, M. Wharry, S. Mar 19 2021 | ORGANIC PROCESS RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT 25 (3) , pp.452-456.

Coupling biocatalysis with high-energy flow reactions for the synthesis of carbamates and beta-amino acid derivatives, Leslie, A; Moody, TS; Smyth, M. Wharry, S; Baumann, M. Feb 4 2021 | BEILSTEIN JOURNAL OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 17, pp.379-384.

A Perspective on Continuous Flow Chemistry in the Pharmaceutical Industry, Baumann, M.; Moody, TS; Smyth, M.; Wharry, S. Feb 4 2021 | BEILSTEIN JOURNAL OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 17, pp.379-384.

Overcoming the Hurdles and Challenges Associated with Developing Continuous Industrial Processes, Baumann, M.; Moody, TS; Smyth, M.; Wharry, S. Dec 31 2020 | Oct 2020 (Early Access) | EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 2020 (48), pp.7398-7406.