Changing the nature of chemical synthesis through metal catalyzed C-H bond functionalization

尽管科学的面貌发生了变化，但合成的重要性--制造分子的能力--并未减弱。为了解决由自然、医学和材料带来的日益复杂的合成问题，我们必须质疑定义我们对制造有机分子的了解的教条。这项提议旨在解决“合成的重大挑战”，即开发一种新的化学合成蓝图，该蓝图将彻底改变分子的制造方式，以响应社会需求。与通常需要大量化学操作将两个分子连接在一起的传统合成不同，我们将激活传统上惰性但普遍存在的碳氢(C-H)化学键与金属催化剂，并将它们直接转化为有用的化学结构，从而简化天然产品、药物和材料的合成。这将对学术界、工业界和整个现代社会产生广泛影响，提供(A)更好的制造分子的方法，(B)通过加快药物发现来降低药物价格，(C)通过对聚合物和蛋白质进行化学修饰来改进材料和化学生物学，(D)通过了解碳氢化合物氧化机制来促进能源相关研究的潜在进展，以及(E)增强化学知识库。

Despite the changing face of science, the importance of synthesis - the ability to make molecules - has not diminished. To solve the increasingly complex synthetic problems posed by Nature, medicine and materials, we must question the dogma that defines what we know about making organic molecules. This proposal seeks to address the 'synthesis grand challenge' to develop a new blueprint for chemical synthesis that will revolutionize the way that molecules are made in response to societies needs. In contrast to conventional synthesis, that often requires numerous chemical operations to link two molecules together, we will activate traditionally inert, but ubiquitous, carbon-hydrogen (C-H) chemical bonds with metal catalysts and transform them directly into a useful chemical architecture thereby streamlining the synthesis of natural products, medicines and materials. This will impact broadly in academia, industry and across modern society, providing (a) better ways of making molecules, (b) cheaper medicines through accelerated drug discovery, (c) advances in materials and chemical biology through chemical modification of polymers and proteins, (d) potential advances in energy related research through understanding the mechanism of hydrocarbon oxidation, and (e) an enhanced chemistry knowledge base.