Research Projects

The construction of C-C bonds at distal positions has seen a significant increase in recent years, primarily for late-stage functionalization of pharmaceutically and biologically important scaffolds. Step-economy and atom-efficiency are crucial for these transformations, and strategies such as template/linker-assistance, relay catalysis, and chain-walking have become highly efficient techniques. The generation of remote C-C bonds, leading to tertiary or quaternary centers, is essential for the synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant molecules. However, the existing protocols are limited in scope. To address these bottlenecks, novel methodologies are proposed to functionalize arenes/heteroarenes using dual strategies of metal-carbene insertion and C-C activation of strained small rings. Diazo compounds are used as suitable alkylating agents due to their ease of synthesis and economic viability. Strain cycloalkanols are used for remote functionalization of tethered 'ene' appendages, resulting in the functionalization of unsaturated bonds at distal positions and asymmetric functionalization, thereby generating tertiary or quaternary chiral centers in a site-selective fashion. These processes not only increase the economic viability of the methods but also increase their synthetic utility.