The Chirality Paradox

L-DOPA is the best drug we have for Parkinson’s disease. If you take L-DOPA and reflect it in a mirror, you get a different molecule: D-DOPA, which does absolutely nothing for Parkinson’s and causes potentially deadly side effects. Making just L-DOPA without D-DOPA is surprisingly hard – so hard that the person who finally figured out how to do it won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. 00:00 Intro 00:35 Chirality 02:25 Racemic drugs 02:44 Parkinson’s disease 03:56 Option 2 07:02 The 2001 Nobel 09:03 Turtles all the way down #ParkinsonsDisease #Parkinsons #LDOPA #DDOPA #Chirality #Enantiomers #NobelPrizeChemistry #DrugSynthesis #PharmaceuticalChemistry #Pharma #ChemicalReactions #Chemistry #OriginsOfLife #TurtlesAllTheWayDown Credits: Executive Producer: Matthew Radcliff Producers: Andrew Sobey Elaine Seward Darren Weaver Writers: George Zaidan Hosts: George Zaidan Scientific Consultants: Eric Jacobsen Ph.D. Brianne Raccor, Ph.D. Michelle Boucher, Ph.D. Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell Reactions is a production of the American Chemical Society. © 2024 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved. Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_...