New enantioselective and stereoselective organic reactions

现代制药生产的一个重要方面是手性或手性的概念。这种分子特性可能会对药物活性和安全性产生重大影响，因为我们体内的分子也具有这种特性。目前，通过使用含有过渡金属的复杂材料，手性作用被引入许多药物中。这可能会带来潜在的毒性问题，并增加药物制造成本。我们小组正在开发用于各种转化的新型有机催化剂。这些化合物不需要金属，而且是从自然产生的物质中提取的。我们正在采用合理的设计方法，试图改善现有系统的性能。具体讨论了反应时间长和催化剂负载量高的问题，这是许多有机催化转化的典型问题。对整个反应顺序的考虑启发我们从理性的基础上处理这个问题，试图改善这些反应。这种方法导致了从樟脑衍生的新型催化结构的发现，这些结构在Diels-Alder环加成反应和其他有用的过程中很有用。我们建议充分探索这些过程的范围，并扩大这些化合物可用于催化功能的范围。

An important aspect to modern pharmaceutical manufacturing is the concept of chirality or handedness. This molecular property can have significant consequences for drug activity and safety, as the molecules in our body also possess this property. Handedness is currently introduced into many pharmaceuticals through the use of complex materials containing transition metals. This can present potential toxicity problems and increase the cost of drug manufacturing. Our group is developing novel organo-catalysts for various transformations. These compounds do not require metals and are derived from naturally occurring substances. We are employing a rational design approach to try to improve on the performance of existing systems. Specifically addressed are the issues of long reaction times and high catalyst loadings that are typical of many organo catalytic transformations. A consideration of the overall reaction sequence has inspired us to approach the problem from a rational basis to try to improve these reactions. This approach has lead to the discovery of novel catalytic structures derived from camphor, that are useful in Diels-Alder cycloadditions and other useful processes. We propose to explore fully the scope of these processes and to expand the range of catalytic functions for which these compounds can be employed.