Research Interests
We are a synthetic organic research group.
Catalysis: Our research interests lie primarily in the field of organocatalysis. Instead of transition metal-based catalysts, in organocatalysis organic molecules are used as catalysts for organic reactions. Organocatalysts can be less expensive, easier to use, "greener" alternatives to oft-used transition metal-based catalysts.
We are interested in the design of new organocatalyst systems and the development of new organocatalytic reactions with practical utility in the synthesis of natural products and medicinal compounds. Illustrated below are two examples of novel organocatalytic conjugate addition/cascade reactions recently developed in the group.
Medicinal chemistry: Our organocatalytic olefin aminofluorination reaction (illustrated above) generates chiral 1-fluoro-2-amines, subunits increasingly incorporated in medicinal compounds. We will use this reaction to produce fluorinated analogues of small, bioactive amino compounds, with the goal of increasing the bioavailability and bioactivity of the amino compounds. Stay tuned for our results!
Facilities
We regularly use our polarimeter and GC, the departmental HPLC, FT-IR, and 200 and 400 MHz NMRs. In addition, we make use of CUNY’s mass spectrometry facility located on the Hunter College campus.
The chemistry department at Brooklyn College has other instrumentation, including LCMS, GCMS, and UV-VIS, that we use less regularly. In addition, CUNY has higher field NMR instruments as well as an X-Ray Crystallography facility that are available for our use.
