The creation of a complex molecule with the inspiring ease with which Nature is able to do so is challenging. Even after centuries of chemical research, the practitioner lacks methods that match the reaction selectivities of Nature’s pathways. Today with limited natural resources, chemists tackle the target molecules of desire, aiming at a minimum amount of labor and material expenses. This naturally leads to a steady need for more sustainable and greener methodologies.
The chemical space is still a vast land where most of the known structures are inspired by naturally occurring entities. A particular interest is in investigating new (or forgotten) functional units and their reactivities. We seek to discover structurally new molecules, many of which having a high nitrogen content. As a result, explorations into biology and material properties are also at the heart of many of our studies (with collaborations).
A) Sustainable chemistry approaches: We develop tailor-made catalysts for highly selective processes (e.g. oxidations, acylations, reductions…). We also use our catalyst systems for fixed bed flow reactors with the goal to engineer a greener process.
B) Standardized methodology for polyketide synthesis: We develop an assembly line approach for the synthesis of polyketide-type natural products by use of chiral building blocks. The building blocks are used for the total synthesis of biologically active polyketides and their derivatives.
C) Expanding the chemical space: We (re-)investigate functional units that have only scarce appearances in the chemical literature. For example, the geminal diazide moiety is under-developed: We systematically study the diazide compounds and their reactions to create new nitrogen-rich heterocycles and energetic materials.
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