Post by InnoSyn B.V.

Meet Shaun Smullen!! 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐚𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐧? InnoSyn as a company appeared to highly value experience and knowledge in their chemists. Also, during the interview and from meeting new colleagues I could see that InnoSyn has a very collaborative atmosphere, and it felt like a place where I could learn a lot and develop skills in new areas for me such as process chemistry and flow chemistry. InnoSyn also has a strong engineering background and works in a broad range of chemistry fields that I have not had much exposure to. It felt like the perfect place to get outside of my comfort zone and grow as a chemist. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞? I carried out my bachelor’s degree and PhD at University College Dublin. My PhD thesis was titled “An Asymmetric Route to Febrifugine and its Analogues.” This project involved the synthesis of a natural product febrifugine and its analogue, halofuginone, which had been used in traditional Chinese medicines to treat fevers but had also been identified as a potential treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. We developed several chirally selective routes to access these compounds using organocatalysis and biocatalysis.