TNMU Department of General Chemistry Successfully Runs Scientific Club

The Department of General Chemistry of TNMU Faculty of Pharmacy has been operating a scientific club for a long time. Students of the Faculties of Pharmacy, Medicine, and Dentistry are involved in the work of the scientific club. The Head of the Department, Hryhoriy Zahrychuk, said that the students of the Faculty of Pharmacy have been conducting experiments and research in the synthetic area for the past two years. Two of the most active members of the club – Yulian Matiashchuk and Viktoria Korzhevska – have practical accomplishments and work experience.

“For these students, their research and experiments will logically be reflected in the qualification paper. Starting from this academic year, graduates of the specialty “Pharmacy. Industrial pharmacy” must perform qualification paper. Therefore, practical activity in a club is one of the opportunities to perform this work thoroughly and effectively.”

“The main condition for such a practical activity is to have deep knowledge of theory and carefully master practical skills. We implement the synthetic direction thanks to the cooperation with colleagues of V. Karazin Kharkiv National University Oleksandr Kyrychenko and Yevhenii Hladkov. They provide us with methodical (and in some cases, material) assistance with active substances and necessary containers. We focus our research on biological activity. We conduct biological screenings on the basis of TNMU Vivarium, in particular with regard to those substances synthesized by our students,” said Hryhoriy Zahrychuk.

Ass. Prof. Hryhoriy Zahrychuk also noted that teachers are gradually involving second-year students of the Faculty of Pharmacy, who are only getting acquainted with the peculiarities of scientific and research activities, to the work of the group. In his opinion, if there is a greater number of members of the group and their desire to work, it is possible to develop other directions, in particular, to research substances that have a different spectrum of activity (anti-inflammatory, antiviral, immunomodulating).

“The search for new substances in this direction is perspective and practical. Thanks to the idea (and above all – the help of colleagues from Kharkiv University), we plan to do this with a combination of molecular docking (reference: molecular docking is a molecular modelling method that makes it possible to predict the most favourable orientation and position of one molecule in relation to the formation of a stable complex to another). So, one of the aspects of our research is “in silico”, that is, prediction. Since we already have certain results, we can make theoretical predictions, as well as obtain synthesized substances and perform their biological screening. That is, the practical side of these studies is also ensured,” – Hryhoriy Zahrychuk says.

In addition, every year, the Department of General Chemistry organizes university-wide Olympiad. Last year, the winner was Viktoria Korzhevska. “The pandemic and full-scale war changed the plans for the Olympiad. They do not take place at the all-Ukrainian level, but at the university level we try to organize them in order to stimulate students to learn better and achieve certain results. We believe in the victory of Ukraine and the restoration of national Olympiad. Our students will definitely take part in them,” Hryhoriy Zahrychuk emphasizes.

In addition, the scientific club of the Department has support from the company “YENAMIN” (reference: the Ukrainian private company “YENAMIN” is one of the world leaders in scientific research among private companies in scientific research in the field of fine organic synthesis, medical chemistry and synthesis of organic compounds). In the summer of 2023, students Viktoria Korzhevska and Yulian Matiashchuk had the opportunity to intern at the “YENAMIN” facilities for a month. This provided an opportunity to improve theoretical knowledge and gain practical experience. The department has established close cooperation with the company, so other students can also take an internship here. In addition, during the academic year, there is the possibility of excursions to “YENAMIN”, to learn about modern equipment and opportunities.

Viktoria Korzhevska (fourth-year student) said that she dreamed of pharmaceutical research since school. “As a schoolgirl, I did not have the opportunity to do what I do in the science club. I promised myself that if I can’t do science at school, then I will do it at the university. During my second-year studies, I approached Hryhoriy Yaroslavovych with this initiative. He said that he is very glad that students who want to do something have found such a field. The second year has already passed since I realized my dream. I have even small achievements, in particular, theses were submitted to the “Lviv Chemical Readings” conference, internship in the chemical laboratory of “YENAMIN”. And this is quite a big achievement for us, because a year ago we did not expect that such a thing was possible,” the student shared her impression.

Yulian Matiashchuk is a third-year student and Viktoria’s research colleague. “Now we are actively synthesizing substances – and we succeed in this. We saw that there are a lot of devices in the laboratory, even a lot of different substances. We can differ in what we do. For example, take different reagents and thereby form different substances. I am going to present the results of my work at student conferences. On the basis of this, I want to do a qualification paper, and after that, together with Hryhoriy Yaroslavovych, we will decide what to do next,” Yulian concluded.

TNMU Press Secretary, Yanina Chaikivska.

Ihor Havryshchak.

Photographs by Mykola Vasylechko.