Optically active diarylmethanols in the synthesis of pharmacologically interesting lignan derivatives

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The increasing demand of enantiomerically pure compounds is constantly spurring chemists to design catalytic asymmetric systems endowed of improved efficiency and environmentally compatible. On the other hand, the development of more and more efficient methods to obtain enantiopure pharmacologically important compounds is one of the most important needs world-wide. The present project deals with a joint cooperation between the research team directed by Professor Carsten Bolm at the RWTH Aachen and that directed by Professor Giovanni Poli at the University of Paris VI. The former team, which has a longstanding skill in asymmetric catalysis, has recently focused one of its interests in the construction of enantiomerically enriched diarylmethanols (benzhydrols). On the other hand, the Paris team, whose main expertise is devoted to palladium chemistry and heterocyclic targets, is presently engaged in the synthesis of pharmacologically and synthetically interesting lignan derivatives. Interestingly, the enantionriched diarymethanols obtained by the former team appear to be ideal precursors in the synthetic strategy planned by the latter team. The finding of such a common point led the two groups to settle a joint project. Accordingly, financial support for one PhD student, and the consumable chemicals associated to his research were requested in the present project. The above joint project should promote the mutual scientific enrichment of the two collaborating research groups, and will further help integration of young researchers in the new European era. Such collaboration is expected to exploit the complementary expertise of the two groups so as to gain a synergic effect in the development of more and more efficient routes to enantiopure pharmacologically interesting products.