Modern Chemistry Podcast

Kevin Lam – The Electric Chemist (Part 1)

Episode Summary

For episode 5, which is split into two parts(episode 6 next month) of the Modern Chemistry show, I interviewed Kevin Lam. Kevin’s research interests focus on the applications of electrochemistry, in particular working on the fields of organic electrochemistry, organometallic electrochemistry and medicinal electrochemistry. The discussion with Kevin covered so much ground that I felt it made sense to split the discussion across two separate episodes.

Episode Notes

Kevin completed his Ph.D. studies at the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium) in 2010 and since then has held research roles at universities in the USA and Kazakhstan.He is currently a Reader in Medicinal Chemistry, based at the University of Greenwich, at their Chatham (UK) campus – where we recorded this episode. 

You will hear the following terms used during the interview.  I’ve included some descriptions and links to deeper reading. 

• Electrochemistry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrochemistry
• Organic electrochemistry (electrosynthesis) - Organic electrochemistry is the use of electrical current through a reaction to activate organic molecules by means of the addition or removal of electrons.  Organic molecules are, broadly speaking, those containing one or more carbon atoms covalently linked to other atoms.
• Organic Synthesis – Any chemical or biochemical method used to make organic substances.
• Flow (electro)chemistry – for more information on flow chemistry, I suggest that you check out episode 2 of the Modern Chemistry Podcast with Russell Taylor.  Flow Electrochemistry is a technique whereby the components of a reaction are passed between typical electrochemistry electrodes.
• Positron Emmission Tomography – An imaging technique, also referred to as PET, often used in medical diagnosis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron_emission_tomography
• C11 (Carbon 11) – A radio active isotope of carbon.  Typically made in a cyclotron, one of the main uses for Carbon 11 is as a tracing agent in PET scans.
• Cylotron – A particle accelerator, often used to prepare riadionuclides for use in nuclear medicine applications - such as PET. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclotron
• Metastatic Melanoma.Melanoma is a type of cancer that develops from pigment-containing cells (melanocytes) typically found in the skin.Metastatic Melanoma occurs when the initial cancer spreads to other locations in the body.
• Organometallic drug - A drug which contains carbon atoms directly bonded to metals or metalloids.
• Chloraquine – A medicine used to treat malaria.
• Electron Transfer – This process occurs when an electron relocates from an atom or molecule to another such chemical entity. ET is a mechanistic description of a redox reaction, wherein the oxidation state of reactant and product changes

If you want to connect with Kevin, or find out more about his lab, you can find:

Kevin’s lab group page at http://www.lamresearchgroup.com/

Kevin on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-lam-8b163420/

On Twitter, Kevin is at https://twitter.com/klchemistry (@KLchemistry)

Our theme music is "Wholesome" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

Music from https://filmmusic.io

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Connect with me (Paul) at https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulorange/

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