The Lab Notes

Why are Graph Neural Networks becoming such an important tool for chemical synthesis? Because molecules already are graphs. Atoms are the points, bonds are the connections, and reactions are simply transformations of those structures. That's the part I love telling chemists, because it means the core idea sits on ground you already know intimately. For…

A new preprint from Maud T. H. Tregear, Shisato Yamamura and Darren J. Dixon introduces an iminophosphorane-based Mitsunobu reagent system that addresses several of the transformation's biggest industrial drawbacks.  https://chemrxiv.org/doi/pdf/10.26434/chemrxiv.15006188/v1   Key points for process chemists: ✅ Improved safety – avoids explosive DEAD and thermally unstable DIAD. The active reagent is generated rapidly from commercially available components,…

The 55th Organic Process Research & Development (OPR&D) Conference once again brought together the global process chemistry community for three days of outstanding science, industry insight and professional exchange in Toronto. For the Scientific Update team, the event began several days before the conference officially opened. Claire, Bec, Vicky, Hannah and Ben travelled to Toronto…

Mechanochemistry at Manufacturing Scale? This Paper Says Yes. Mechanochemistry has long promised greener, more efficient synthesis—but questions around scale and robustness have held it back. The recent paper by Banderob et al. (2026), “Scale‑Up of Mechanochemical Amidation in Agitator Bead Mills from Laboratory to Commercial Scale,” is a strong step toward changing that narrative. What stands…

One of the most valuable insights from Roche’s recent ChemRxiv preprint is how medicinal chemistry and process chemistry diverge in practice. By analysing nearly 700,000 reactions recorded in Roche’s electronic lab notebooks over 15 years, the authors show how the types of reactions performed change as molecules move from discovery into development. Medicinal chemistry dominates the total number of…

One of the skills I think we don’t talk about enough in science is communication. This is especially so for organic chemistry where the reaction schemes we are all so familiar with are effectively hieroglyphics to those outside of our field of expertise. I was reminded of this reading a recent ACS Central Science interview with…

Solid‑phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) has been with us since Merrifield’s landmark 1963 work, but one feature has remained stubbornly unchanged: the need to use large excesses of amino acid building blocks to avoid deletion sequences. In their recent preprint, Nigenda et al. - 2026 - Sub-stoichiometric peptide synthesis, Nigenda and co‑workers argue convincingly that this…

A recent paper by Choudhary et al. [https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.5c13808] reinforces a key message for practitioners: a process can only be considered truly sustainable if all its components — including catalysts, ligands, and additives — are designed with the same principles in mind. Micellar catalysis in water is often promoted as a green alternative to traditional organic…

Three recent open access articles on the topic of Sustainability, in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Green Chemistry, that caught our attention and may be of interest to fellow process chemists. The first is an obituary for roger sheldon, one of the pioneers in the field, who passed away in October 2025. https://lnkd.in/eWf8sb6p Roger…

What does effective training planning actually look like in a large organisation? Recently, we worked with a global pharmaceutical company that took a refreshingly thoughtful approach to staff development — and the results showed in engagement and course impact.         Instead of assigning training by department, they flipped the model. For two…