1450 - 1530 Erik Sorensen

Rapid formation of molecular complexity in natural product synthesis 

In 180 years of research in the field of organic chemistry, the vast majority of the chemical reactions that have been developed to do synthesis produce only one to two bonds at a time. This circumstance reflects the intrinsic challenge of controlling the outcomes of reaction sequences that generate multiple bonds by one-flask processes. Nevertheless, in the field of natural product synthesis, there is a small set of achievements that provide striking examples of spontaneous cascades of reactions that rapidly form molecular complexity. This lecture will address some of these examples in the context of our ongoing efforts to design and execute chemical reactions that quickly produce the complex structural elements of several biologically active natural products.