My research group has been working in two related areas of organic synthesis: carbohydrate synthesis and natural product synthesis. The unifying theme that connects our research in these two areas is our use of asymmetric catalysis and the desire to create new antitumor and antimicrobial compounds. Fundamental to our approach is the development of highly efficient routes that transform, via catalysis, inexpensive achiral starting materials into enantiopure products, which are poised for the conversion into complex molecules with biologically relevant properties (i.e., enantioselective synthesis of a new “chiral pool” via asymmetric catalysis). With the success of this de novo approach to both natural product and carbohydrate targets, we have begun to use these synthetic approaches for medicinal chemistry studies (e.g., the development of new antitumor and anticancer agents).
