New enantioselective and stereoselective organic reactions

现代医药制造的一个重要方面是手性或手性的概念。这种分子特性对药物活性和安全性有重要影响，因为我们体内的分子也具有这种特性。目前，许多药物是通过使用含有过渡金属的复杂材料来引入手性的。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，而是来自天然存在的物质。我们正在采用一种合理的设计方法来改进现有系统的性能。具体解决了反应时间长和高催化剂负载的问题，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激发了我们从理性的基础上解决问题，试图改善这些反应。这种方法已经导致从樟脑衍生的新的催化结构的发现，这是有用的Diels-Alder环加成和其他有用的过程。我们建议充分探索这些过程的范围，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.