Pharm to Table
Episodes
SE4:E8: From Discovery to Process, Part 2: Getting Ugi with it - scaling a 3CL protease inhibitor
23 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Part 2 of our Pharm to Table deep dive on MK‑7845, Dani and LC shift from invention to implementation, welcoming process chemists Nastaran Salehi...
SE4:E7: From Discovery to Process, Part 1: Building a 3CL Protease Inhibitor Through Smart Fluorine Placement and Design Intuition
02 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this first installment of our two‑part Pharm to Table special on MK‑7845, Dani and LC sit down with medicinal chemist Valerie Shurtleff to unpa...
SE4:E6 - Mechanism-Driven Innovation in Process Research: Yining Ji Chen’s Road as a Rising Star
10 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Join us for a conversation with Yining Ji Chen, recipient of the 2025 ACS Rising Star Award, on how mechanistic insight powers innovation in pharmaceu...
SE4:E5 - Evolution of a Green Chemistry Trailblazer
13 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Dani and LC welcome Jeff Moore, recipient of the 2025 ACS Affordable Green Chemistry Award, to discuss his pioneering work in biocata...
SE4:E4 - MedChem Masters: Molecules, Mentors and Mindsets
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Dani and LC interview Dr. Shane Krska, recipient of the ACS Arthur C. Cope Award, and Dr. Petr Vachal, recipient of the ACS Earle B. ...
S4:E3 - London Calling ... Spirocycles
19 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This month we sit down with Damien Valette, Olivia Boyd and David Petrone to chat about their latest paper in Organic Letters on the desymmetrization ...
S4:E2 - Making Sulfur Smell like Success!
21 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Join us on the Pharm to Table podcast for a delightful chat with Ethan Wappes from our South San Francisco site, as we dive into the exciting world of...
S4:E1 Chemistry Unplugged: Listener Q&A and Future Insights
27 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We're kicking off Season 4 (holy cow!) by having a lively discussion answering listener questions on everything from our favorite Boc deprotection...
S3:E10 - Look what ADCs made us do
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Antibody drug conjugates, or ADCs, are all the rage in the industry right now and chemists play an important role in their development. This month we ...
S3:E9 - Surfing peptide production by going with the flow
17 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ready to go with the flow? Then this episode is for you! In this episode, we dive into the exciting world of Continuous-Flow Solid-Phase Peptide Synth...
S3:E8 - So you think you want to start a chemistry podcast?
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Join Dani and LC as they peel back the layers on podcasting in chemistry. This insightful episode dives into their recently published Organic Letters ...
S3:E7 - Your Rx for a Pharma Job: Insider Secrets (Part 2)
05 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Time for the main course! Our #MerckChemistry hiring experts are dishing out more savory tips to help you get hired in pharma. In this second part, t...
S3:E6 - Your Rx for a Pharma Job: Insider Secrets (Part 1)
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Looking to kickstart your career in the pharmaceutical industry? This episode is a must-listen! We have special guests Jamie McCabe Dunn, Val Shurtlef...
S3:E5 - When Robots Work-It-Up!
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Alexandra Sun and Harrison Rose join the pod to share their work on a vision-guided automated liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) platform. That's righ...
S3:E4 - "Asta La Vista, Baby" - The Aminator
22 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Patrick Fier and Suhon Kim join the pod to share their lates collaboration on a new C-N cross-coupling protocol which leverages a novel multifunctiona...
S3:E3 - A chemist, a physicist and an enzyme walk into a bar...
20 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nadine Kuhl (process chemist) and Jacob Forstater (engineer and physicist) join the pod to share a pretty neat story that had its origins from a chemi...
S3:E2 - Barton-McCombie Beware!
15 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Charles Yeung (@Charles_chem) joins the pod to share some of the latest results from a collaboration with Prof. Wickens' lab (@WickensGroup) at th...
S3.E1: All I Want for the holidays are cross-couplings, collaborations and cookies!!
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For our special Holiday extravaganza, Dani and LC share their holiday plans before diving into the cookie jar of questions from some of our favorite l...
S2.E8: Peptides, Cross-Electrophile Coupling and Maple Syrup!
17 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For this month's episode, Dani and LC serve up a recently published JACS article on Ni-catalyzed pyridinium cross-electrophile coupling for non-ca...
S2.E7: So Far, So Cyanide: Green, air-tolerant and robust cyanation reactions.
15 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For this month's episode, Dani and LC go all in on Ni-catalyzed cyanations with Caleb Hethcox who recently published 2 papers on the topic - one w...
S2:E6 - The Catalysis Laboratory at Merck: 20 Years of Catalyzing Innovation (Part 3)
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Becky Ruck joins Dani and LC for the grand finale of our journey reviewing the history of the Merck Catalysis Laboratory. She highlights how her b...
Snack: The Catalysis Laboratory at Merck - 20 Years of Catalyzing Innovation (Part 2)
24 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
L.-C. and Dani talk about the next era in the Catalysis Lab's evolution, highlighting the democratization of high-throughput experimentation tools...
S2:E5 - The Catalysis Laboratory at Merck: 20 Years of Catalyzing Innovation (Part 1)
10 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this month's episode, and our 1st of 3 parts dedicated the 20th anniversary of Merck's Catalysis Laboratory, Dani and L.-C. sit down and ch...
S2.E4: The Total Synthesis of Darobactin A (or is it Davobactin?)
28 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For this month's episode, Dani and LC dive into the challenges of strained cyclic peptide synthesis with Niki Patel and Dave Petrone who recently comp...
S2.E3: All I Want for Christmas Is Candy, Chainsaws, Chemistry and ANSWERS!
22 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For our special Holiday extravaganza, Dani and LC reminisce about the holidays while in grad school (think candy throw downs and chainsaws) before div...
S2.E2: Enabling medicinal chemistry knowledge exchange with #ChemistryWizards (not trolls)
07 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For S2E2, we’re joined by drug hunting legends Doug Beshore and Izzat Raheem who recently co-authored a recent (and popular) paper in J. Med. Chem. ...
S2.E1: No Bald Eagles We're Harmed in the Recording of this Podcast
01 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We kick off season 2 with a bang, talking about complex molecule synthesis with John McIntosh and Nastaran Salehi. Cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) are a t...
S2 Kickoff: Answering Your Questions & S2 Sneak Peak
24 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For our kickoff of Season 2, LC and Dani get together (in person!) to reflect on what’s changed since the Pharm to Table pod started in late 2020, a...
Snack: What it's Like to Immigrate to the US for Work
18 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Cecilia Bottecchia is originally from Italy and Francois Levesque is native of Canada. Both have had very international pathways during their studies ...
S1.E10: Hot Tub Flow Time Machine
01 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For the 10th, and final course of season 1, Dani and LC jump in the hot tub flow time machine with Cecilia Bottecchia and Francois Levesque, co-recipi...
S1.E9: ChemSpeed, Daft Punk and Twinkly Lights
09 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For the 9th course, Dani and LC do the robot dance with Melodie Christensen (@chemchristensen on Twitter) #MerckChemistry Enabling Technologies group....
Snack: Spring ACS Symposia Organizer Sneak Peak - Taming the Unnatural (amino acids) with Sue Zultanski
21 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
ChemTwitter told us it takes 3 minutes to run a TLC plate, so today we‘re bringing you 3 good minutes with Sue Zultanski (Associate Principal Scient...
Snack: Spring ACS Symposia Organizer Sneak Peak - Chemists of Color with Jennifer Obligacion and David Thaisrivongs
14 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
ChemTwitter told us it takes 3 minutes to run a TLC plate, so today we‘re bringing you 3 good minutes with David Thaisrivongs (Director) and Jenny O...
Snack: Spring ACS Symposia Organizer Sneak Peak - Theory to Therapy with Marion Emmert and Colin Lam
07 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
ChemTwitter told us it takes 3 minutes to run a TLC plate, so today we‘re bringing you 3 good minutes with Marion Emmert (Principal Scientist, Catal...
Snack: Spring ACS Symposia Organizer Sneak Peak - BCP's with Xiaoshen Ma
28 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
ChemTwitter told us it takes 3 minutes to run a TLC plate, so today we‘re bringing you 3 good minutes with Xiaoshen Ma, Associate Principal Scientis...
S1.E8: Biocatalytic Cascades, the Rube Goldberg of Chemistry - Fun with Nucleosides : Part 3
14 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For the 8th course, Dani and LC ride the biocatalytic cascade with Ania Fryszkowska (@fryania on Twitter) and Greg Hughes (@greg_hughes on Twitter) fr...
S1.E7: Surfin' the ProTides - Fun With Nucleosides : Part 2
31 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For the 7th course, Dani and LC serve up a hearty helping of nucleoside chemistry with Artis Klapars and Dan DiRocco from the #MerckChemistry Rah...
S1.E6: Nuc, Nuc, Nuc'ing on Heaven's Door - Fun With Nucleosides : Part 1
10 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For the 6th course, Dani and LC serve up a delicious discussion with Steve Silverman (@asymtmm on Twitter) from the #MerckChemistry Kenilworth NJ...
Holiday Snack: All I Want for Christmas Is ... ANSWERS!
20 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For our special Holiday Snack episode we invite Eric Ashley (Director of Discovery Process Chemistry, @DrERAChem), Yeon-Hee Lim (Director of Discovery...
Snack: #TLCchat with Cecilia Bottecchia, photoflow award winner
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
ChemTwitter told us it takes 3 minutes to run a TLC plate, so today we‘re brining you 3 good minutes with Cecilia Bottecchia, Senior Scientist in Fl...
S1.E5: Paint the Town ERED!
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For the 5th course, join Dani and LC as they sit down with #MerckChemistry's Meg Shaw and Chihui An to discuss their biocatalytic approach in transfor...
Snack: #TLCchat with Becky Ruck, new topic editor at ACS Catalysis
18 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
ChemTwitter told us it takes 3 minutes to run a TLC plate, so today we‘re brining you 3 good minutes with Becky Ruck, Executive Director and Head of...
S1.E4: Does HTE stand for Hazmat Trucking Enforcement?
04 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For our 4th course, we sit down with Dipa Kalyani to chat about her journey from a tenured professor position at St-Olaf to associate principal scient...
Snack: #TLCchat with Patrick Fier, newly minted C&EN's Talented 12 for 2021
20 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
ChemTwitter told us it takes 3 minutes to run a TLC plate, so today we‘re brining you 3 good minutes with Patrick Fier, Principal Scientist in Proce...
S1.E3: Simon, Garfunkel and the Art of Building N-Aryl Piperidines
06 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For our 3rd course we serve up another #MerckChemistry duo, Libby Hennessy (aka Simon) and Aaron Sather (aka Garfunkel) who join us to discuss their d...
Snack: #TLCchat with Jamie McCabe Dunn, lead of process chemistry recruiting
30 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
ChemTwitter told us it takes 3 minutes to run a TLC plate, so today we‘re brining you 3 good minutes with Jamie McCabe Dunn, Director of Process Che...
Snack: #TLCchat with Ania Fryszkowska, bioCAT extraordinaire!
16 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
ChemTwitter told us it takes 3 minutes to run a TLC plate, so today we‘re brining you 3 good minutes with Ania Fryszkowska, a biocatalysis whiz who ...
S1.E2: Phenols and Sulfonamides Are Cool!
02 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For our 2nd course, a #winning #MerckChemistry duo, Patrick Fier and Kevin Maloney, join us to discuss their discovery of the Maloney-Fier reaction (c...
Snack: Origin Story
19 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Every great meal starts with an inspiration.... Find out how Pharm to Table was created from an idea to our release. You'll find out how we gathered a...
S1.E1: Harder, Better, Faster
05 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For our 1st course (and inaugural episode!!), Dani and L.-C. serve up the true Pharm to Table experience by discussing the importance of academic...
The Theme Song
28 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Another teaser! Here is our delicious theme song. Thanks to Mark Partridge (twitter: @markrightmedia) for this original piece! One more week to the la...
Coming Soon! Pharm to Table Podcast
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Check out our trailer! Join L.-C. Campeau and Dani Schultz as they explore the amazing stories and people behind the papers from #MerckChemistry. We p...