Discovering, Making and Exploiting New Families of Atropisomers

构成药物、香料、香料、染料和材料的分子都具有由它们的形状决定的性质。有些分子相当坚硬--许多药物分子有一定程度的刚性，这有助于它们与体内的受体结合。其他的则是柔性的--例如，制造塑料的聚合物。在这两种情况下，实现对分子形状的控制是化学家面临的挑战之一。在我们的研究中，我们的目标是发现介于刚性和柔性极端之间的新型分子--具有一些有用的灵活性但仅限于范围内的分子：这些分子被称为阿特匹森分子，从希腊语中的意思是不能扭曲或转动。阿托异构体是一类具有重要药用价值的生物化合物，也是合成药物和其他产品的催化剂的重要组成部分。然而，尽管几乎可以肯定存在更多类型的阿托品，但人们只研究了一到两种类型的阿托品。我们想要发现这些新的阿托体分子家族，并发明制造它们并控制它们形状的方法。这将使我们化学家能够制造出与自然界中发现的具有药用特性的阿托品异构体相关的化合物，从而针对特定的疾病。或者，它可以让化学家制造新的催化剂，改善现有化合物的制造方式，使药物或其他有价值的产品更便宜、更容易制造。或者，它甚至可能打开分子可能具有的新的结构特征，从而允许化学家制造具有新特性和功能的材料。

The molecules which make up drugs, fragrances, flavours, dyes and materials all have properties determined by their shape. Some molecules are fairly rigid - many drug molecules have a degree of rigidity which assists their binding to receptors in the body. Others are flexible - the polymers which make plastics for example. In both cases achieving control over the shape of molecules is one of the challenges which faces chemists. In our research we aim to discover new types of molecules falling somewhere between the extremes of rigidity and flexibility - molecules which have some useful flexibility but only within limits: these molecules are known as atropisomeric, from the Greek for can't twist or turn . Atropisomers are found as important biological compounds with medicinal properties, and also form an important part of many catalysts used for synthesising drugs and other products. However, only one or two types of atropisomers have been studied, even though many more almost certainly can exist. We want to discover these new families of atropisomeric molecules, and invent ways of making them with control over their shape. This will allow us chemists to make compounds related to atropisomeric compounds found in nature, with medicinal properties, and hence target them at particular disease. Or it could allow chemists to make new catalysts, improving the way existing compounds are made, making drugs or other valuable products cheaper and easier to make. Or it might even open up new architectural features which molecules may possess, and hence allow chemists to make materials with new properties and functions.