Today our first collaborative paper with the Gries and Britton groups was published in Angewandte Chemie, describing the discovery of the first sex attractant in Vespid insects. Congratulations to joint first authors Weiwu, Regine, Cat and Nathan on what we hope will be the first of many joint projects in this area. This was a fascinating project, requiring detailed and careful work in the areas of chemical ecology, analytical chemistry and synthesis. A perfect example of interdisciplinary research at SFU!

The full paper describing the total synthesis of the skyllamycins and simplified analogues by the Payne group, and our analytical and biological characterization of these products is out today in the Journal of Organic Chemistry. Well done to Jake, Kenji and the Payne team on this nice result.

Darryl Wilson has been awarded a PGSM scholarship from NSERC (the Canadian national science funding body). Congratulations to Darryl for this terrific achievement.