At Laboratório de Síntese Orgânica Medicinal (LaSOM) of Faculdade de Farmácia/UFRGS, several teaching and research activities are developed. The practical classes of undergraduate (medicinal organic synthesis II) and postgraduate (planning of new drugs) are held here. Students have contact with the synthesis, purification and characterization of drugs, using classic and alternative methods, benign to the environment, related to the concepts of green chemistry (microwaves, ultrasound, greener solvents). The Research Group develops projects with graduate and undergraduate scholarship holders, originating from UFRGS or other Universities. These projects are mainly focused on the planning, synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of both synthetic and natural origin libraries, including semi-synthesis. The central point is the discovery of a hit for antitumor and antiparasitic activity (leishmania and chagas mainly), easily and quickly obtained and with potential for escalation. Aiming to use a rational method of drug design, LaSOM develops projects in Molecular Modeling, such as molecular docking and molecular dynamics.

          LaSOM has a collaboration network that aims to promote biological tests of the molecules developed in its structure, generating pharmacological results useful to lines of research developed. Together with the Laboratório de Toxicologia (LATOX) of the Faculdade de Farmácia, an alternative model of in vivo tests with the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is being developed and implemented, a very simple organism from a structural and physiological point of view. Except for the absence of some organs present in humans, the animal model is quite promising for the evaluation of toxicity, especially with regard to assessments of the nervous system and oxidative stress. In addition, LATOX is also responsible for investigations related to the antioxidant activities of the LaSOM chemotherapy through tests with DPPH as well as in vitro tests on different cell models. The Labroratório de Sinalização Purinérgica (Laboratório 22 of the Departamento de Bioquímica/UFRGS) is also part of this network of partnerships, in which enzymatic assays are developed with the enzyme soluble ecto-5'-nucleotidase (CD73) for screening of series of molecules available by LaSOM. In addition, the collaboration also includes tests of pharmacological activity in vitro on cancer cell models.