New enantioselective and stereoselective organic reactions

现代药物制造的一个重要方面是手性或手性的概念。这种分子特性可能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。手性目前通过使用含有过渡金属的复杂材料被引入到许多药物中。这可能存在潜在的毒性问题并增加药物制造成本。我们的团队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，来自天然物质。我们正在采用合理的设计方法，试图改善现有系统的性能。具体解决的是长反应时间和高催化剂负载的问题，这是典型的许多有机催化转化。对整个反应顺序的考虑启发了我们从理性的基础上来处理这个问题，以尝试改进这些反应。这种方法已经导致发现了衍生自樟脑的新的催化结构，其在Diels-Alder环加成和其他有用的过程中是有用的。我们建议充分探索这些过程的范围，并扩大这些化合物可以使用的催化功能的范围。

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.