Thieme Cheminar Dedicated to Professor Erick Carreira

Join us for the Thieme Cheminar dedicated to Professor Erick Carreira Thursday, August 14, 2025 3:00 PM (CET) This special online event celebrates the impactful career and scientific legacy of Prof. Erick Carreira, through outstanding talks by leading researchers in the field: 🔹Prof. Tobias Ritter (Max-Planck-Institut Kohlenforschung, Germany) 🔹Prof. Song Lin (Cornell University, USA) 🔹Prof. Sarah Reisman (California Institute of Technology (Caltech), USA) Chaired by Prof. Mark Lautens, Editor-in-Chief of Synthesis Do not miss this unique and inspiring opportunity to explore groundbreaking chemistry and honor one of the field’s leading voices! Late-Stage Functionalizations Late-stage functionalization reactions reliably functionalize already complex molecules to quickly access value-added molecular diversity. Late-stage functionalization is desirable in many areas of discovery such as in drug- or agrochemical development and protein modification, as well as a requirement in other areas such as the synthesis of positron-emission tomography (PET) tracers. I will describe the development of chemoselective reactions in late-stage functionalization, as well as their applications to modification of small and large molecules. In particular, I will describe the development of a broadly useful C-H thianthrenation reaction, as well as the conceptual differences and advances of thianthrenium chemistry when compared to conventional reaction chemistry, with development towards applications in catalysis, drug discovery, and medicine. Enantioselective Electrosynthesis This talk details the development of new strategies for the enantioselective synthesis of useful complex molecules via electrochemistry. We will first discuss Lin lab's foray into the area of asymmetric electrocatalysis using redox-active transition metal complexes as electrocatalysts. We will then discuss a new strategy employing chiral electrolytes to impart enantioselectivity in organic reactions involving highly reactive radical cations. Necessity is the Mother of Invention: Natural Products and the Chemistry They Inspire The chemical synthesis of natural products provides an exciting platform from which to conduct fundamental research in chemistry and biology. Our group is currently pursuing the synthesis of several structurally complex natural products, with a particular focus on the development of new convergent fragment coupling and annulation strategies. The densely packed arrays of heteroatoms and stereogenic centers that constitute these polycyclic targets challenge the limits of current technology and inspire the development of new synthetic strategies and tactics. In concert with our total synthesis efforts, we have an active program on the development of new reductive coupling reactions, including Ni-catalyzed asymmetric reactions of C(sp3) electrophiles and Sm-catalyzed reductive coupling reactions. This seminar will describe our recent total synthesis studies on the grayanane natural products.