Research

Chemical synthesis of biologically relevant molecules remains the rate-limiting step in drug discovery and development despite the tremendous progress that has been made in academia and industry. Our research focuses on inventing and developing enabling chemical tools to address significant synthetic challenges facing biomedical sciences and pharmaceutical industry, thus accelerating creation of potential new medicines. To achieve this goal, our effort is directed towards:

• Innovating chemo-, regio-, and stereo-selective catalytic reactions that are compatible with polar groups and heterocycles;
• Designing and developing novel strategies for late-stage functionalization of synthetic scaffolds and natural products;
• Discovering molecular recognitions between biomolecules and artificial receptors in three-dimensional chemical space.

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