Discoveries and diversions in natural product synthesis

Abstract

Our lab. seeks to discover, develop, and study new chem. reactions within the context of natural product total synthesis. The chem. synthesis of natural products enables the study of their biol. properties, and can provide access to synthetic derivs. with improved therapeutic properties or that can serve as mechanistic probes. Importantly, these synthetic undertakings often highlight shortcomings of the existing state-of-the-art and inspire the discovery of new chem. Our lab. has ongoing research programs targeting the chem. syntheses of several natural products, including members of the epidithiodiketopiperazines, the ent-kauranoids, and the acutumine alkaloids. The densely packed arrays of heteroatoms and stereogenic centers that constitute these polycyclic targets challenge the limits of current synthetic methodol. This seminar will describe our latest progress in both our methodol. and target-directed synthesis endeavors.