Vitamin B12 total synthesis
Industrial synthesis of chemical substance / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The total synthesis of the complex biomolecule vitamin B12 was accomplished in two different approaches by the collaborating research groups of Robert Burns Woodward at Harvard[1][2][3][4][5] and Albert Eschenmoser at ETH[6][7][8][9][10][11][12] in 1972. The accomplishment required the effort of no less than 91 postdoctoral researchers (Harvard: 77, ETH: 14)[13]: 9-10 [14], and 12 Ph.D. students (at ETH[12]: 1420 ) from 19 different nations over a period of almost 12 years.[5]: 1:14:00-1:14:32,1:15:50-1:19:35 [14]: 17-18 The synthesis project[15] induced and involved a major change of paradigm[16][17]: 37 [18]: 1488 in the field of natural product synthesis.[19][20][21]