working toward the synthesis of salinomycin, a polyether antibiotic. At the end of 1989 he earned a fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Science and joined ...
Meet the Editorial Board
Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 8
697
Meet the Editorial Board Yagamare Fall studied chemistry at the “Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Strasbourg” (ENSCS) (France) and graduated in 1980. He then spent some time working as research engineer at the research plant of Gaz de France (GDF) in Paris, before joining the group of Prof Yves Langlois at the “Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles” (ICSN) at Gif-sur-Yvette, working on the synthesis of pheromones. After receiving his PhD degree from the University of Paris XI (Orsay) in 1986 he spent 3 years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Southampton with Prof Philip Kocienski, working toward the synthesis of salinomycin, a polyether antibiotic. At the end of 1989 he earned a fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Science and joined the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) working in the field of vitamin D with Prof. Antonio Mouriño and continued working in the same field in collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Solvay-Duphar. In 1993 he signed a one year contract with Solvay and joined the dutch plant of the company in Weesp. Back to the University of Santiago de Compostela he continued his collaboration with Prof. Antonio Mouriño and Solvay in the synthesis of analogues of calcitriol, till 1998 when he joined the Department of Organic Chemistry at the University of Vigo as a lecturer. He became assistant professor in 2001 and gained his habilitation as full Professor in 2011. In Vigo he had the opportunity to develop an independent research and his research group is known for its contribution in the synthesis of natural compounds and other bioactive compounds using a new methodology based on singlet oxygen oxidation he coined the “furan approach”. The Fall’s group has also developed and patented a new synthetic method for the obtention of the so-called “Gemini” type analogues of calcitriol, known to exibit less calcemic effects then calcitriol, hence opening up new horizons for this important class of vitamin D analogues. In collaboration with the Spanish pharmaceutical company Neuropharma (now Noscira) Fall and co-workers have patented and published the first enantioselective synthesis of palinurin, a non-ATP-competitive inhibitor of GSK-3β, involved in Alzheimer’s disease. They also filed 4 more patents on GSK-3β inhibitors. As another aspect of their involvement in the development of new methods for natural product synthesis, they recently entered the fascinating world of ionic liquids, which they use as green solvents, organocatalysts, or soluble supports. Prof. Yagamare Fall is involved in the initiatives for the promotion of cooperation and mobility and has received in his research group Erasmus students from Italy and PhD students from Senegal and Argentina. Prof. Yagamare Fall is the co-author of over 90 peer-reviewed articles, 12 patents and 11 book chapters. He supervised 13 Ph.D theses and 24 Master’s theses. He has had collaborations with pharmaceutical companies such as NEUROPHARMA (Spain), BETAGENON (Sweden) and DISHMAN (The Netherlands). He acts as regional editor for Africa, for Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry and serves on the editorial board of The Open Organic Chemistry Journal .
Yagamare Fall Catedrático de Química Orgánica Regional Editor of CTMC for Africa Departamento de Química Orgánica Facultad de Química y Instituto de Investigación Biomédica (IBI) Edificio Ciencias Experimentales Universidad de Vigo 36200 Vigo Pontevedra Spain
