Research

 

The pursuit of more economical and inexpensive ways to create carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds has been a driving force behind many ground-breaking synthetic chemistry discoveries. This field of research is of paramount importance to the synthetic community as advancements result in more efficient alternative routes to target molecules. To this end, the research in our group focuses on the development of modern synthetic transformations for the formation of carbon-carbon/heteroatom bonds and their application in complex target-oriented synthesis of biologically relevant molecules.

The research aims in the Grover group include: i) development of novel synthetic transformations for the rapid construction of structural frameworks present in natural compounds and pharmaceuticals; in particular, C-H activation, photoredox reactions, radical processes, and heterocycle/carbocycle annulations. ii) Application of new synthetic methods toward the synthesis of bioactive natural products (alkaloids, terpenes, and polyketides). Concise, well-designed approaches not only allow for the synthesis of these molecules in useful quantities, but also allow for modular synthetic derivatization of these targets for potential structure-activity relationship studies. iii) Medicinal chemistry – library preparation of structurally complex organic target molecules via strategic design and late stage functionalization of therapeutic drug derivatives (and natural products) for collaborative high-throughput screening against a variety of different disease states.