Current Areas of Research

Electrophilic Late Metal Catalysts

Image 1We aim to discover late metal catalysts for the electrophilic activation of alkenes, allenes, and alkynes towards carbon nucleophiles. The long-term goal is to develop catalysts capable of mediating the enantioselective cation-olefin reaction, the key C-C bond forming reaction in terpene biosynthesis (steroids, etc).

 

 

Dynamic Combinatorial Chemistry

Image 3This powerful method utilizes reversible bond formation to synthesize complex libraries of potential receptors. In the presence of an appropriate template, the best receptor for that template is amplified relative to the remaining components of the library. We have been inventing approaches to discovering enantioselective receptors using racemic libraries. This is also a new project.

 

 

New catalysts for the synthesis of C-Glycosides

Image 2These compounds are medicinally important because of their attenuated susceptibility to metabolic processing (compared to normal carbohydrates). The approach that has been successful thus far, is to develop Ni-catalysts for promoting the addition of alkyl- and aryl- zinc reagents to glycosyl-halides. This is a completely new project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Gagné group is interested in synthesis, catalysis, and how molecular recognition can be used to find new approaches to solving difficult problems.

Students and postdocs come from a variety of backgrounds but primarily include organic and inorganic coworkers.

Our projects, generally speaking, straddle these areas, though some projects have a strong emphasis on synthesis and/or organometallic chemistry/catalysis.