Rapid planning and analysis of high-throughput experiment arrays for reaction discovery.

High-throughput experimentation (HTE) is an increasingly important tool in reaction discovery. While the hardware for running HTE in the chemical laboratory has evolved significantly in recent years, there remains a need for software solutions to navigate data-rich experiments. Here we have developed phactor™, a software that facilitates the performance and analysis of HTE in a chemical laboratory.

Computer-aided key step generation in alkaloid total synthesis.

Efficient chemical synthesis is critical to satisfying future demands for medicines, materials, and agrochemicals. Retrosynthetic analysis of modestly complex molecules has been automated over the course of decades, but the combinatorial explosion of route possibilities has challenged computer hardware and software until only recently. Here, we explore a computational strategy that merges computer-aided synthesis planning with molecular graph editing to minimize the number of synthetic steps required to produce alkaloids.

Reinforcing the supply chain of umifenovir and other antiviral drugs with retrosynthetic software.

The global disruption caused by the 2020 coronavirus pandemic stressed the supply chain of many products, including pharmaceuticals. Multiple drug repurposing studies for COVID-19 are now underway. If a winning therapeutic emerges, it is unlikely that the existing inventory of the medicine, or even the chemical raw materials needed to synthesize it, will be available in the quantities required.

Catalytic Enantioselective Synthesis of Mariline A and Related Isoindolinones through a Biomimetic Approach.

The catalytic enantioselective synthesis of isoindolinones was achieved through the condensation of 2-acyl-benzaldehydes and anilines. In the presence of 1 mol % of a chiral phosphoric acid catalyst, reactions reach completion within 10 min and provide products with up to 98 % ee. Anilines with an ortho t-butyl group form atropisomeric products, thereby enabling the simultaneous generation of axial and point chirality from two achiral substrates.

Identification of a strong and specific antichlamydial N-acylhydrazone.

Sexually transmitted Chlamydia trachomatis is an extremely common infection and often leads to serious complications including infertility and pelvic inflammatory syndrome. Several broad-spectrum antibiotics are currently used to treat C. trachomatis.

Intramolecular [3 + 2]-cycloadditions of azomethine ylides derived from secondary amines via redox-neutral C-H functionalization.

Azomethine ylides are accessed under mild conditions via benzoic acid catalyzed condensations of 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinolines or tryptolines with aldehydes bearing a pendent dipolarophile. These intermediates undergo intramolecular [3 + 2]-cycloadditions in a highly diastereoselective fashion to form polycyclic amines with four new stereogenic centers. Challenging substrates such as piperidine, morpholine, and thiomorpholine undergo the corresponding reactions at elevated temperatures.

Synthesis of carbazolones and 3-acetylindoles via oxidative C-N bond formation through PIFA-mediated annulation of 2-aryl enaminones.

A series of carbazolone derivatives and 3-acetylindoles have been achieved via PIFA-mediated intramolecular cyclization of 2-aryl enaminones. This process allows the N-moiety on the side-chain to be annulated to the benzene ring via the metal-free oxidative aromatic C-N bond formation.