Nucleoside Chemistry and Flash Chromatography: An Integrated Approach to Teaching an Organic Chemistry Laboratory

We report here the development of an integrated approach to teaching an organic chemistry laboratory. The laboratory exercise focused on the syntheses of two modified nucleosides and used the syntheses as a vehicle to teach organic chemistry from the point of view of how science is done in the real world. The project not only taught advanced organic bench techniques, but also drew heavily from the basics of molecular biology. The laboratory exercise was taken from the work accomplished in an industrial research laboratory and introduced during the spring semester of 1998. Each three person group was provided with a file containing the relevant literature and given the task of completing the synthesis and purification in a three week period. The groups were encouraged to handle the science and chemistry in a manner similar to a research group in an industrial or academic setting. Each group presented their results in a written paper and an oral presentation.