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Dr.
Somsak Ruchirawat received his
B.Sc (Hons) in chemistry in 1966 from
the University of Liverpool; he was
subsequently awarded a Ph.D. in organic
chemistry in 1969 from the same university
under a Colombo Plan Scholarship.
After a year as a lecturer in the Department
of Chemistry, Mahidol University,
he was awarded a SEATO fellowship
to carry out research at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) as a
postdoctoral fellow, follow, followed
by another appointment at Boston University
as a research associate supported
by the National Cancer Institute (NCI),
USA. He served as the Chairman of
the Department of Chemistry, Mahidol
University during the period of 1986-1990.
He is presently the Director of the
Programme on Research and Development
of Synthetic Drugs, Institute of Science
and technology for Research and Development
and also the Head of the Laboratory
of Medicinal chemistry, Chulabhorn
Research Institute (CRI). His main
research interests have focused on
the chemistry of nitrogen heterocycles
in general, and the chemistry and
biology of alkaloids in particular,
as well as research on Thai medicinal
plants.
Dr. Somsak is enthusiastic and optimistic
about his future research undertaking.
His future research plants will concentrate
on the synthesis of bioactive heterocycles.
Heterocycles play an importat role
in the development of drugs, chemicals
used in agriculture, and industrial
chemicals, among many others. It is
anticipated that endeavors along these
lines will not only result in the
upgrading of research capability of
Thai scientists but also the possibility
of finding new drug leads or interesting
biologicals. During the past decade,
much research has been focused on
marine natural products, especially
the ascidian metabolites, because
of the remarkably high incidence of
biological activity that they display.
Many of these compounds are 3,4-disubstituted
pyrrole derivatives, including lamellarins,
lukianols and ningalins. All of these
compounds have captured the interests
of various groups of synthetic chemists
due to the very interesting biological
activities exhibited by these compounds,
especially the lamellarins. The research
group has very recently published
a highly efficient synthesis of lamellarin
skeletons as well as the application
to the synthesis of lamellarin G trimethylether.
Modification and extension of the
developed method will be pursued and
the effort will also focus on finding
new synthetic methodologies for the
synthesis of these lamellarin derivatives.
Moreover, the syntheses of 3,4-disubsituted
pyrrole derivatives, lukianols, and
ningalins will also be the subject
of future research.
Dr. Somsak is also interested in
the synthetic methodologies for the
synthesis of the bioactive heterocycles,
including synthetic utilities of sulfonamides
in the synthesis of isoquinoline and
related alkaloids; synthetic utilities
of hypervalent iodine compounds in
the synthesis of various classes of
alkaloids; application of organometallics
for the synthesis of heterocycles;
and application of the Ritter reaction
for the synthesis of nitrogen heterocycles.
It is planned that the above methodologies
will lead to the syntheses of the
following groups of compounds: isoquinolines,
phthalideisoquinolines, benzazapines,
benzophenanthridines, aporphines,
protoberberines, imidazo [5,1-a] isoquinolines,
diospyrols and other oxygen heterocycles.
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