Dennis Curran

Organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry, radical chemistry, fluorous chemistry, ligated borane chemistry

Radical Chemistry

Over the years, we have made many contributions to synthetic radical chemistry.  Highlights include our early synthesis of hirsutene, which was the first natural product to be made by a cascade radical cyclization.  Later we made camptothecin and scores of analogs by cascade radical reactions.  Other natural products that we have synthesized include capnellene, silphiperfolene, hypnophillin, coriolin, mappicine (and ~750 analogs) and meloscine.  We have also pioneered new radical atom transfer reactions, radical translocation reactions, and stereoselective radical reactions.

Fluorous Chemistry

Our group pioneered many new techniques and reactions as the discipline of fluorous chemistry began to emerge and prosper.  We introduced fluorous synthesis (fluorous tagging), fluorous triphasic reactions, light fluorous methods, phase vanishing reactions (with Ilhyong Ryu), and fluorous mixture synthesis.  Our 1997 invention of fluorous solid phase extraction (FSPE) enabled much subsequent work in our group and others.  Techniques of fluorous mixture synthesis produced stereoisomer libraries of about a dozen different natural products, including pheromones, mating hormones and macrolactones with anticancer and antibiotic activities.

Ligated Borane Chemistry

Most recently, our work has focused on synthesis and reactions of N-heterocyclic carbene boranes (NHC-boranes).  NHC-boranes are easy to make, and they are typically white solids that are stable to ambient lab conditions.  They are promising reagents for use is various radical, ionic and metal-catalyzed reactions.