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Monday, October 17, 2011

Monday's Molecule #145

 
I'm restarting Monday's Molecule. The last one was almost two years ago [Monday's Molecule #144].

The rules have changed a bit. Monday's Molecule will no longer be linked to a Noble Prize because I'm running out of Nobel Prizes that lend themselves to such a linkage. All you have to do is supply the complete, unambiguous, name of the molecule to win a free lunch. Post your answer in the comments. I'll hold off releasing any comments for 24 hours. The first one with the correct answer wins.

There could be two winners. If the first correct answer isn't from an undergraduate student then I'll select a second winner from those undergraduates who post the correct answer. You will need to identify yourself as an undergraduate in order to win. (Put "undergraduate" at the bottom of your comment.)

Some past winners are from distant lands so their chances of taking up my offer of a free lunch are slim. Many of them have kindly donated their free lunch to the next contest.

Name the molecule shown in the figure. Remember that your name has to be unambiguous. The best way to do this is to use the full IUPAC name but there are several traditional names that will do.




10 comments :

Rumraket said...

Not an undergraduate, and from a distand land so you can exclude me fron the lunch. But i'll give it a shot anyway:

1,25-Dihydroxycholecalciferol

Or Vitamin D3

Bill Chaney said...

Glad to see Monday Molecule is back.

The molecule is 1,25-dihydrocholecalciferol.

It's IUPAC name (taken from a ref, not something I worked out) is:

(1R,3S)- 5-[2-[(1R,3aR,7aS)-1- [(2R)-6-hydroxy-6-methyl-heptan-2-yl]-7a-methyl-2,3,3a,5,6,7-hexahydro-1H- inden-4-ylidene]ethylidene]-4-methylidene-cyclohexane-1,3-diol

If this entry is a winner, please donate my lunch to a deserving undergraduate.

jimmy neutron said...

I'd say it is calcitriol or 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol.

Roger Fan
Undergraduate

DK said...

Too easy without Nobels!

1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3. That should be unambiguous enough...

Bassel Arnaout said...

I think it is maybe Melatonin; N-[2-(5-methoxy-1H-indol-3-yl)ethyl] ethanamide

Undergraduate

Margot said...

This is calcitriol or 1,25-Dihydroxycholecalciferol; the biologically active form of vitamin D. Funny, I just read this vitamin D review last week (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcb.10338/abstract) that mentioned an experiment done by Dr. Michael Holick to purify active vitamin D metabolites where he fed 1500 vitamin D-starved chickens tritiated vitamin D3 and then extracted the lipids from their guts. Do people do experiments like that anymore?

J. Christian Somody said...

1α,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3

Anonymous said...

Hi Larry

I think it may be 1,25-Dihydroxycholecalciferol - the active form of Vitamin D

Kind regards

Glyn
UK

Larry Moran said...

The winner is Bill Chaney who correctly identified the molecule as 1,25-dihydrocholecalciferol and didn't make the mistake of calling it vitamin D3.

The undergraduate winner is Roger Fan.

Roger, are you available for lunch next week? We'll be joined by Alex Ling who points out that I owe him a lunch from 2009!

jimmy neutron said...

I regret that I won't be able to do lunch. I'm excited to have won though! I study Biology and Applied Math at the University of North Carolina.

Roger Fan