New enantioselective catalytic synthesis of alcohols, carboxylic acids, and heterocycles

有机化学研究是一项基础性和核心的工作，它影响到需要设计和合成分子的许多科学领域。强大的合成方法的出现将极大地增强我们发现挽救生命的疗法、发明具有有用和不同寻常的特性的材料以及在分子水平上研究生物学的能力。在多伦多大学化学系，董研究小组致力于开发创新战略，以应对有机合成中的现代挑战。我们的主要方法包括利用过渡金属络合物独特的反应性，将容易获得的材料转化为有用的有机产品。我们的一些长期目标包括寻找碳氢键功能化的新方法，使用二氧化碳作为原料，以及构建含氮杂环。重要的是，我们计划生产比最先进的方法更有选择性、更高效、更环保的方法。除了实际意义外，我们的研究还有望产生有趣的、新颖的化学反应。最终，我们将致力于了解这些转化的作用机制，并将它们应用于制造对天然产品合成、材料科学和化学生物学感兴趣的分子。我们团队中的研究生和博士后研究员将接受有机合成艺术方面的培训，并获得成为学术界以及制药和精细化工行业未来创新者所需的技能。

Research in organic chemistry is a fundamental and central endeavor that impacts the many fields of science which require the design and synthesis of molecules. The advent of powerful synthetic methods will dramatically enhance our capability to discover life-saving therapeutics, invent materials with useful and unusual properties, as well as investigate biology at the molecular level. In the chemistry department at the University of Toronto, the Dong Research Group is engaged in developing innovative strategies to address modern challenges in organic synthesis. Our main approach involves harnessing the unique reactivity of transition metal-complexes to transform readily available materials into useful organic products. Some of our long-term goals include finding new ways to functionalize carbon-hydrogen bonds, used carbon-dioxide as a raw material, and construct nitrogen-containing heterocycles. Importantly, we plan to produce methods which are more selective, more efficient, and environmentally friendly compared to the state-of-the-art. Aside from the practical significance, our studies are expected to result in fundamentally interesting and novel chemical reactivity. Ultimately, we will engage in understanding the mechanism of action for these transforms, as well as applying them to make molecules of interest to natural product synthesis, materials science, and chemical biology. The graduate students and postdoctoral research fellows in our group will be trained in the art of organic synthesis and acquire the skills needed to be tomorrow's innovators in academia and the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industry.