Department of Chemistry

The collaborative work of Allingham, Craig & Evans labs was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. This publication demonstrates the ability to produce a truncated synthetic derivative of the actin-targeting marine toxin mycalolide B impairs ovarian cancer cell motility and invasion of extracellular matrix.  This is an important and exciting step toward developing a new class of cancer therapeutics that can inhibit cancer metastasis.  Cancer metathesis accounts for approximately 90 percent of the annual deaths, and this approach is an important step in dealing with this dreadful disease. 

Congratulations to our 4th year undergraduate students for completing their thesis projects! Special congratulations to the recipients of the Walter MacFarlane Smith Prize in Chemistry, Kristen Harrington and the M. Sullivan and Son Limited Scholarship, Josh Zacks.

A paper published by Dr. Jean-Michel Nunzi and co-workers in nano-Micro Letters was recognized as “paper of the month” by Kanazawa University, Japan The research and paper's topic is about the optimization of the front contact that permits to fabricate efficient and reproducible perovskite solar cells. To view the paper, please visit the Kanazawa website.

Professor Nick Mosey is the winner of the 2021 CSC – Tom Ziegler Award. The award will be presented during the Canadian Chemistry Conference (CCCE 2021) and Dr. Mosey will present a lecture at the CCCE 2021. To view the CCCE Award Lectures and biography, please visit the Cheminst website.

The Department of Chemistry at Queen’s University is saddened to announce the passing of Professor Emeritus Walter A. Szarek on February 6th, 2021, at the age of 82. Dr. Szarek was one of Canada’s leading carbohydrate and medicinal chemists. Despite his fame, Dr. Szarek was a humble, warm, and approachable person. He was also an outstanding colleague, always willing to go the extra mile for his Department, colleagues, and students.

Dr. Szarek received his BSc and MSc degrees from McMaster University (the latter with D.B. MacLean), followed by a PhD from Queen’s University in organic and carbohydrate chemistry, with J.K.N. Jones as his supervisor. Following postdoctoral work at Ohio State University with M.L. Wolfrom, Dr. Szarek began his independent career as an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Rutgers University. Dr. Szarek returned to the Department of Chemistry at Queen’s University in 1967 and became a Full Professor in 1976. He was appointed Professor Emeritus in 2003 and maintained an active research program until very recently.

Dr. Szarek blazed a path in the fields of carbohydrate and medicinal chemistry. He is the author of over 350 publications and 30 patents, the latter covering drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, malaria, bacterial infection, and pain. His innovations led to successful drugs such as Kiacta^TM, for treatment of renal amyloidosis; Alzhemed^TM for treatment of Alzheimer’s, and the nutraceutical VIVIMIND™, for alleviating memory decline. His research led to the establishment of Neurochem, which was renamed BELLUS Health Inc. in 2008, and Neuroceptor Inc., which merged with Antalium Inc. to become PainCeptor. Among his research awards are the American Chemical Society’s Claude S. Hudson Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry and the Melville L. Wolfrom Award of the Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry of the American Chemical Society.

His contributions had a lasting impact on the Canadian carbohydrate chemistry and chemical biology community. Renowned glycobiologist Prof. Stephen Withers, a Canada Research Chair in Chemical Biology at UBC, says of Dr. Szarek, “Walter Szarek’s quiet and kind approach belied his substantial impact on carbohydrate science. In my early career, on several occasions, when I thought I had a great new idea, I would find that Walter had done that very thing a decade before! He will be missed.”

During his distinguished academic career, Dr. Szarek also served as Director of the Carbohydrate Research Institute at Queen’s (1976 to 1985) and was a member of several scientific advisory and review boards, including PanCeptor Pharma Corporation, Osta Biotechnologies Inc., and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation.

Dr. Szarek also led a distinguished teaching career at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, counting the eminent chemical biologist B. Mario Pinto (Deputy Vice Chancellor of the Gold Coast Campus, Griffith University, Australia) as his first graduate student. He has won numerous awards for his teaching, a level of excellence that continued to his last years in front of a class, when Walter won the graduating class teaching award two years in a row.

The Walter A. Szarek endowed lectureship series was established in 2018 to celebrate his accomplishments, with the inaugural lecture delivered by Walter’s life-long friend, and Nobel prize winner, Sir Fraser Stoddart.

Walter will be sorely missed.