Synthetic Methodology
Our research interests fall under the broad brush of organic synthesis. Our research interests are as follows: total synthesis, structure determination and methods development. We are interested in: the development of key reaction methodology, especially in the areas of oxidative radical cyclisations, transition metal catalysed processes and catalytic enantioselective synthesis; all aspects of the structure and conformational preferences of ring compounds; and the use of biosynthesis and computational methods as predictive tools for the structure determination of complex molecules. All of the above inform and guide our research on complex molecule total synthesis.
Total Synthesis
Natural products continue to provide an important source of chemical entities for the treatment of human disease. We use biologically active natural products as a source of inspiration for chemical methods development, to test our developed synthetic methodology and as important targets for total synthesis. A selection of current and completed targets are shown.
Structure Determination
Recently computational methods for the calculation of spectroscopic properties of organic molecules have emerged as powerful tools for structure determination and structure confirmation. In collaboration with Dr Jonathan Goodman (University of Cambridge), Professor Robert Paton (University of Oxford) and Professor Deukjoon Kim (Seoul National University) we are using total synthesis as a tool to fully test these methods with highly flexible, computationally demanding molecules, such that all organic chemists may confidently use such techniques to aid structure determination.
