Speaker: 
Professor Darren J. Dixon, University of Oxford, UK 

Title: 
Catalyst Control in Complex Molecule Synthesis

Abstract: 
New catalysts are key for unlocking previously unknown molecular reactivity and unexplored chemicalspace, as well as governing the 3-dimensional structure of product molecules of interest to chemistry,biology and medicine. In this lecture, new synthetically relevant chemistry linked to two distinct types ofcatalyst systems will presented. In the first part, recent developments from our group for the directsynthesis of alpha and beta-functionalised amines from amides and lactams via highly chemoselectivereductive activation using known and new iridium catalysts will be described. In the second part, recentfindings employing bifunctional chiral organosuperbases for accessing chiral phosphorous (V) compounds,as well as other medicinally relevant motifs and building blocks, with high enantioselectivity will bepresented. Across both topics, details of the newly arising methodologies as well as their provenance andapplications in natural product or drug molecule total synthesis, will be discussed.[1-5]

[1] S. Shiomi, B. D. Shennan, K. Yamazaki, A. L. Fuentes de Arriba, D. Vasu, T. A. Hamlin and D. J. Dixon, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2022, 144, 1407.[2] R. Kucěra, S. R. Ellis, K. Yamazaki, J. Hayward Cooke, N. Chekshin, K. E. Christensen, T. A. Hamlin, D. J. Dixon, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 5422.[3] G. Su, M. Formica, K. Yamazaki, T. A. Hamlin and D. J. Dixon, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 12771.[4] M. Formica, T. Rogova, H. Shi, N. Sahara, B. Ferko, A. J. M. Farley, K. E. Christensen, F. Duarte, K. Yamazaki, D. J. Dixon, Nat. Chem. 2023, 15, 714.[5] D. Rozsar, A. J. M. Farley, I. McLauchlan, B. D. A. Shennan, K. Yamazaki, D. J. Dixon Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, e202303391.