Design, manufacture and deployment of a low-cost area radiation monitoring system using Raspberry Pi computers and open-source software.

Monitoring of background radiation levels in radiopharmaceutical laboratories is a key tool in minimising dose to workers. Retrofitting area monitoring systems in an existing laboratory can be disruptive and prohibitively expensive. We set out to develop a flexible low-cost area monitoring system utilising the power of inexpensive single board computers and open-source software.

Total synthesis of (-)-reidispongiolide A, an actin-targeting macrolide isolated from the marine sponge Reidispongia coerulea.

A stereocontrolled total synthesis of the microfilament-destabilizing cytotoxic macrolide (-)-reidispongiolide A, isolated from the New Caledonian marine sponge Reidispongia coerulea, is described. This synthesis utilizes a convergent aldol-based strategy to construct the 26-membered macrolactone, followed by the late-stage coupling of a derived aldehyde with an N-vinylformamide-containing ketone subunit to install the full side chain. Two alternative routes were examined for the introduction of the 2E,4E-dienoate region, and a complex Mukaiyama aldol coupling was used to connect the northern and southern hemispheres to install the C13 stereocenter.

Synthesis of antimicrofilament marine macrolides: synthesis and configurational assignment of a C5-C16 degradation fragment of reidispongiolide A.

Reidispongiolide A is a representative member of the sphinxolide/reidispongiolide group of cytotoxic 26-membered macrolides of marine origin. By interacting with actin in the cell cytoskeleton, the reidispongiolides and sphinxolides are potent microfilament destabilizing agents that represent a promising mechanism of action for developing novel anticancer drugs. An aldol-based synthesis of a library of diastereomers of C(8)-C(16) and C(5)-C(16) fragments and detailed NMR comparison with a reported degradation fragment enabled a configurational assignment for a major part of the reidispongiolide macrocyclic core, thus setting a solid foundation for ongoing synthetic efforts.