Natural Products
Natural products provide a wealth of opportunities to design biologically active small molecules for use as drugs or biological tools. They also provide an ideal forum to develop novel synthetic strategies and test existing methodologies. Our group is generally motivated by unique bio-synthetic pathways, and target putative intermediates, in order to explore their reactivity in a laboratory context. Many are only fleetingly stable, and could not otherwise be isolated directly from natural sources. In targeting these intermediates, we are able to probe the feasibility of proposed metabolic pathways, with the aim of accelerating bio-synthetic investigations. Students are exposed to all aspects of synthetic design and execution, and can pursue projects into collaborations that span the chemistry - biology divide.
Representative Publications
1) Albertson, A. K. F.; Lumb, J.-P. “A Bio-Inspired Total Synthesis of Tetrahydrofuran Lignans.” Angew. Chemie. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 2204-2208.