Site-Selective Catalysts for Organic Synthesis

描述（由申请人提供）：多功能分子在疾病的化学治疗中起重要作用。有机合成领域位于制药科学的前沿，提供小分子用于筛选生物靶标，并最终在工业规模上进行有效的药物合成。大部分候选药物合成依赖于含有许多这样的位点的分子内的独特反应位点的选择性官能化。因此，不期望的副反应的风险是极端的。迄今为止，处理这种情况的主要战略是使用“保护性群体”。“保护性团体的效率本来就低。它们需要一个安装步骤，一个额外的拆卸步骤，并且这些步骤通常都不会以100%的产率发生，没有浪费，也没有时间损失。此外，从基本的观点来看，保护基是有机合成中许多未解决的问题。保护基团掩盖了一个反应位点，同时允许化学反应在另一个位点发生。合成有机化学中更直接的挑战是在竞争反应性的情况下实现所需的反应性，而无需低效地应用这种掩模。工具的开发-即，催化剂-这将允许多官能分子内非常相似的位点的选择性官能化将构成向前迈出的重要一步。虽然这个目标在某些圈子里被视为棘手，但我们已经启动了一个项目，记录了一个潜在的新战略。这两个从头合成的复杂分子的影响是显着的。此外，对药学上证明的、结构复杂的天然产物进行无保护基修饰的意义也是非常令人兴奋的。天然产物惊人的生物活性指导了一代又一代的合成有机化学家。然而，众所周知，许多制药公司都不重视天然产品的发现和药物开发工作。一个主要原因是结构复杂性，这阻碍了有效的合成和直接的模拟生成。通过以天然产物的直接，有效和保护性无基团操作为目标，我们奋进引入新的工具，这些工具可能有助于在学术和工业实验室中对其进行探索，从而有效地获得新颖的和无法获得的生物活性类似物。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Polyfunctional molecules play an important role in the chemotherapeutic treatment of disease. The field of organic synthesis resides in the vanguard of pharmaceutical science, delivering both the small molecules for screening against biological targets, and ultimately the efficient processes for drug synthesis on an industrial scale. A large fraction of drug candidate syntheses depends on the selective functionalization of unique reactive sites within molecules that contain many such sites. Thus, the risk of undesired side reactions is extreme. To date, the dominant strategy to handle this situation is the use of "protective groups." Protective groups are inherently inefficient. They require a step for installation, an additional step for removal, and neither of these steps generally occurs in 100% yield, with no waste, nor loss of time. Furthermore, from a fundamental standpoint, protective groups bely a host of unsolved problems in organic synthesis. Protective groups mask one reactive site, while allowing chemistry to occur at another. The more direct challenge in synthetic organic chemistry would be to achieve the desired reactivity, in the face of competing reactivity, without the inefficient application of such a mask. The development of tools - i.e., catalysts - that would allow the selective functionalization of very similar sites within polyfunctional molecules would constitute a major step forward. While the goal is, in some circles, viewed as intractable, we have initiated a program that has documented a potentially new strategy. The implications for both de novo syntheses of complex molecules are significant. Moreover, the implications of the protective group-free modification of pharmaceutically proven, structurally complex natural products is also highly exciting. The amazing biological activity of natural products has guided generations of synthetic organic chemists. Yet, notoriously, many pharmaceutical companies are de-emphasizing natural products discovery and drug development efforts. A major reason is the structural complexity that prevents both efficient synthesis, and straightforward analog generation. By taking aim at the direct, efficient and protecting group-free manipulation of natural products, we endeavor to introduce new tools that may assist in their exploration in both academic and industrial laboratories, enabling efficient access to novel and otherwise inaccessible biologically active analogs.