Speaker:

Prof. Darren J. Dixon, University of Oxford, UK 

Time-Place:

Tuesday 30/9-2025 10.15 in AUD-II (1514-115) 

Title:

Catalyst Control in Complex Molecule Synthesis

Abstract: 

New catalysts are key for unlocking previously unknown molecular reactivity and unexplored chemicalspace, as well as governing the 3-dimensional structure of product molecules of interest to chemistry, biology and medicine. In this lecture, new synthetically relevant chemistry linked to two distinct types of catalyst systems will be presented. In the first part, recent developments from our group for the direct synthesis of alpha and beta-functionalised amines from amides and lactams via highly chemoselectivereductive activation using known and new iridium catalysts will be described. In the second part, recent findings employing bifunctional chiral organosuperbases for accessing chiral phosphorous (V) compounds, as well as other medicinally relevant motifs and building blocks, with high enantioselectivity will be presented. Across both topics, details of the newly arising methodologies as well as their provenance and applications in natural product or drug molecule total synthesis, will be discussed.[1-5]

[1] S. Shiomi, B. D. Shennan, K. Yamazaki, A. L. Fuentes de Arriba, D. Vasu, T. A. Hamlin and D. J. Dixon, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2022, 144, 1407.[2] R. Kucěra, S. R. Ellis, K. Yamazaki, J. Hayward Cooke, N. Chekshin, K. E. Christensen, T. A. Hamlin, D. J. Dixon, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 5422.[3] G. Su, M. Formica, K. Yamazaki, T. A. Hamlin and D. J. Dixon, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 12771.[4] M. Formica, T. Rogova, H. Shi, N. Sahara, B. Ferko, A. J. M. Farley, K. E. Christensen, F. Duarte, K. Yamazaki, D. J. Dixon, Nat. Chem. 2023, 15, 714.[5] D. Rozsar, A. J. M. Farley, I. McLauchlan, B. D. A. Shennan, K. Yamazaki, D. J. Dixon Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, e202303391.