Crystals And Catalysts

This is the most important part of your bachelors, masters or doctorate degree so it's important you know what you're doing so you hit the ground running and don't waste valuable time being lost. When I was completing my bachelors' dissertation I was completely lost, even though I enjoyed working in the lab, I didn't enjoy the overall process and it left me really stressed and anxious. I only found out the aim of my research once I had completed and submitted my project. Granted I did get a good grade on it and it's still a piece of work I'm proud of, but if I could go back and do things differently or focus on specific parts of it, I would. Click here to read all about my bachelors' project. 

This post is different because I wont be discussing someone else's research, I am discussing my own research. My final year project at university.  What was my project about? The Synthesis of a derivative of Montiporyne E. The aim of the project was to find a simple, fast and effective method of reactions to produce a derivative of Montiporyne E potential anti-cancer drug. Cancer is caused when cells  replicate abnormally  and rapidly to form tumours.  This is because the cell does not undergo apoptosis (the normal programmed cell death) and therefore these affected cells continue to multiply uncontrollably.  Montiporyne E is d erived from a hard coral , named Montipora Sp .  Hard corals have been found to produ ce cytotoxic, acetylenic compounds.  — It is used in the treatments of solid tumour cells.  The extraction from hard coral is expensive, laborious and also hard coral is on the verge of extinction, therefore a more effective method of production was requ