INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY

Development of innovative synthetic methods with transition metal catalysts

and their application in natural product and drug synthesis

The generation of molecular complexity is a central task of modern synthetic chemistry. In this context, transition-metal-catalyzed cascade transformations of readily available starting materials offer maximum efficiency and atom economy.

We develop cascade processes that enable rapid access to bioactive natural products and natural product-inspired compounds for drug research as well as complex molecular structures for new functional materials. The use of rationally designed, multifunctional catalysts that can selectively catalyze different conversions of a given substrate type enables divergent reaction cascades and maximum product diversity. The development, optimization and extension of the transformations as well as applications in natural product and drug synthesis are the subject of our research in addition to the elucidation of the occurring reaction mechanisms.

A current focus is on the development of ruthenium-catalyzed cascade transformatins of unsaturated alcohols and their application in the synthesis of various alkaloids and terpenoids as well as natural product-inspired analogues.

  Cascade conversion: alkaloid and terpenoid scaffolds from simple enynols (selected examples).