Department of Chemistry Seminar -  Recent Advances in Medicinal Chemistry and Asymmetric Catalysis

Speaker: Professor Pat Guiry

Institution: Professor of Organic Chemistry, University College Dublin

Hosted By: Professor Jianwei SUN

Abstract

This lecture will describe some of our recent results in medicinal chemistry, including the asymmetric synthesis and biological evaluation of novel specialised pro-resolving mediators (SPMs) related to lipoxins. While native lipoxins are capable of promoting the resolution of acute inflammation, the full spectrum of their therapeutic application is hindered by the inactivation achieved through enzymatic degradation soon after they carry out their anti-inflammatory effects. With the pathways of lipoxin metabolism identified, analogues could be specifically designed to circumvent these undesirable reactions. This lecture will describe some of our recent results in this area.

In asymmetric catalysis, our work in developing Pd-catalysed decarboxylative transformations, the development of novel planar chiral cyclophane-containing ligands and their application in (3+2) cycloadditions, as well as other enantioselective (3+2) cycloadditions employing cyclopropenes, will also be discussed.