Events

Necessity is the Mother of Invention: Natural Products and the Chemistry They Inspire

Feature lecture presented by Prof. Sarah Reisman, California Institute of Technology

Abstract:
The chemical synthesis of natural products provides an exciting platform from which to conduct fundamental research in chemistry and biology. Our group is currently pursuing the synthesis of a number of structurally complex natural products, including the diterpenoids perseanol and talatisamine. The densely-packed arrays of heteroatoms and stereogenic centers that constitute these polycyclic targets challenge the limits of current technology and inspire the development of new synthetic strategies and tactics. This seminar will describe the latest progress in our methodological and target-directed synthesis endeavors.

Bio:
Professor Sarah Reisman earned a BA in Chemistry from Connecticut College in New London, CT and her Ph.D. in chemistry from Yale University, conducting research with Prof. John L. Wood in the area of natural product total synthesis. As an NIH post-doctoral fellow, Sarah pursued studies in the field of asymmetric catalysis working with Prof. Eric Jacobsen at Harvard University. In 2008, Sarah joined the faculty at the California Institute of Technology where she is now the Bren Professor of Chemistry. Research in the Reisman laboratory seeks to advance the science of chemical synthesis, through synergistic contributions in both strategy design for natural product synthesis and reaction development. Reisman is recognized as a leader in the area of natural product synthesis, where her group has contributed new strategy-driven approaches a number of complex highly oxidized natural products. In addition to her program in natural product synthesis, Reisman has made impactful contributions to the rapidly advancing field of Ni-catalysis, with an emphasis on asymmetric reductive cross-coupling reactions. Reisman is an editorial board member at Organic Syntheses and an associate editor for the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Reisman has been recognized with a number of awards for teaching and research, including an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, a Cottrell Scholar Award, the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, the Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award, the Margaret Faul Women in Chemistry award, and the ACS Elias J. Corey Award.

Reassessing Amide Bond Formation: Chemistry and Safety

Introductory lecture presented by Gregory Beutner, BMS

Abstract:
Amide bond formation is one of the most common transformations in synthetic organic chemistry. This is driven by the ability of amides to influence molecular properties, both in a chemical and biological context. In this talk, studies focused on amide bond formation in the final step of the synthesis of the pharmaceutical target Linrodostat will be presented. Efforts to arrive at more efficient and robust conditions for this transformation led to development of a broadly applicable method for amide bond formation using TCFH-NMI. Subsequent extensions of this method eventually led into questions about its safe use. To address them, a collaborative effort between chemists and toxicologists was undertaken to understand the safe handling of amide bond forming reagents in a general sense. This analysis provides a new perspective on the use of these powerful reagents in a wide range of transformations and a different way for chemists to make better decisions at all stages of research.

Hosted by Tom Rovis