Research Synopsis

Research in our group focuses on developing new methods and reagents that can potentially solve longstanding synthetic problems. In particular, we are interested in exploring transition metals-catalyzed stereoselective formation of C-C, C-O, and C-N bonds. The methods that we have developed will be applied as the key steps toward the synthesis of complex oligosaccharides, amphidinoline N, communesin B, and phorbaside C.

New Glycosylation Methods

The development of new methods for stereoselective glycosylation has been extensively investigated due to the varied and important functions of carbohydrates in a variety of biological systems. Our group has developed several palladium and nickel catalysts that can effect glycosidic bond formation with excellent anomeric selectivity. Our methods rely on the nature of the catalysts rather than that of the protecting groups on the substrates to control the selectivity, thus eliminating the need for cumbersome protecting group manipulations.

Natural Product Synthesis

We are also involved in the total synthesis of architecturally complex natural products. In each molecule, our goal is to develop new metal-catalyzed reactions that allow us to efficiently construct the key steps within the following biologically active natural products. In the metal-catalyzed asymmetric reactions, the asymmetric induction is generally controlled by the enationmerically pure ligands that are directly ligated to the metal atom. We are interested in utilizing carbohydrate-metal complexes as the chiral catalysts that are capable of promoting a variety of organic transformations.