Photochemistry and electrochemistry in the manufacture of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients

Dr Matthew Burns, AstraZeneca

We are delighted to invite you all to our school seminar on Wednesday, October 30th, from 3 to 4 pm at Chemistry LT A, which will feature Dr. Matthew Burns from AstraZeneca.

School of Chemistry Seminar (Semester 1, 2024-2025)

Speaker: Dr. Matthew Burns, AstraZeneca, 30th October 2024

Title: Photochemistry and electrochemistry in the manufacture of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients

Abstract: There has been a renaissance of photochemistry and electrochemistry techniques in the academic literature in the past 15 years. This talk will cover ongoing research activities at AstraZeneca to use these techniques for the large-scale commercial manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Successful manufacturing campaigns will be described, and challenges with the chemistry and technologies will be discussed. 

Bio: Matt received his undergraduate and PhD degrees in chemistry at the University of Bristol, where he studied boron homologation chemistry with Professor V. Aggarwal. He then pursued his postdoctoral fellowship at Colorado State University in the United States. Here, working with Prof. T. Rovis, he conducted research into the preparation and reactivity of artificial metalloenzymes. Then he returned to the UK to work with Prof. M. Gaunt at the University of Cambridge.  

Matt began his career at AstraZeneca as a Senior Scientist in Chemical Development; he is Synthesis Capabilities Lead for late-stage process chemistry now.