News & Events

When

Date - October 14, 2016
12:00 am

What

Associate Professor
University of North Carolina Wilmington

“Aziridines: Strained Heterocycles for Bio-Active Molecule Synthesis”

Abstract:

Aziridines are 3-membered, nitrogen-containing heterocycles found in nature. Decades of investigation has produced many important methods for the ring-opening of aziridines, defining them as versatile intermediates in organic synthesis. Recently our research group began to study N– acylaziridines as precursors to chiral, biologically-active small molecules. Specifically, β-substituted tryptamines, a class of neuroactive molecules, are available upon nucleophilic aziridine ring opening under Lewis acid catalysis. Our efforts to utilize N-acylaziridines as synthetic intermediates in the enantioselective synthesis of tryptamines and oxazolines will be discussed.