This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) program provides $635,000 in funding to Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia to develop new catalytic reactions and synthetic methodologies to rapidly construct complex chemical structures, including medicinally relevant natural products.
The research team led by Professor Mingji Dai is investigating innovative carbonylation reactions using transition metal catalysts to enable the streamlined, sustainable synthesis of challenging natural and non-natural products with desirable characteristics for potential medicinal applications. The program aims to address the hurdles posed by the natural scarcity and structural complexity of many promising natural products. The research focuses on three main objectives: 1) developing palladium-catalyzed carbonylative transformations to synthesize polycyclic anticancer natural products, 2) replacing palladium with nickel catalysts to enable more economical and sustainable carbonylative lactonization reactions, and 3) exploring new transition metal-catalyzed carbonylative macrolactonization reactions to access complex macrolide derivatives. This award runs from May 1, 2024 to April 30, 2027 and reflects NSF's commitment to advancing scientific knowledge and addressing national research priorities in chemical synthesis and medicinal chemistry.
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