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The Construction and Elaboration of Complex Heterocyclic Molecules

I obtained my PhD from Imperial College, London under the supervision of Professor Donald Craig in conjunction with GlaxoSmithKline. Following this I conducted postdoctoral work with Professor Louis Hegedus at Colorado State University in organometallic chemistry. I started my first academic position in a primarily undergraduate university (California State University, Fullerton). I then moved to a fixed-term lectureship at the University of Tasmania, before moving to my current position at the University of Wollongong, where I am an ARC Mid-Career Industry Fellow.

This talk will give an overview of our recent work on developing new methods for synthesising complex heterocyclic architectures of biological significance. The talk will be split into two major parts:

1. The first part of the talk will discuss our recent work on elaborating sulfamidate imine heterocycles via catalytic asymmetric Pd-catalysis. The reactions discussed will encompass allylation, allenylation and formal cycloaddition processes towards complex heterocyclic architectures.
2. In part 2, I will discuss our work harnessing nitro-substituted unsaturated molecules to construct complex organic molecules via ring forming reactions. This will include demonstrating how the LUMO-lowering effect of nitro groups on aromatic systems allows participation in cycloaddition reactions to synthesise a suite of 3D-rich heterocycles. Emerging from this work, a new class of folded atropisomeric seven-membered heterocycle has been discovered – synthetic, structural and stability studies of these systems will be presented.