With this award, the Chemical Synthesis Program of the NSF Division of Chemistry is supporting the research of Professor Fraser Fleming of the Department of Chemistry at Drexel University who is developing new ways to make and use a chemical building block called an isocyanide. Key goals of this project are to prepare more examples of unique types of isocyanides and to increase the number of ways isocyanides are used to form molecules. Currently, there are only seven examples of commercially available isocyanides, which limits the number of compounds that can be made with these building blocks. This program is creating simple ways to make more isocyanides and to use them to form new desirable molecules for pharmaceutical and material applications. Professor Fleming works with a diverse group of graduate and undergraduate students and is leading student retreats focused on work-life balance to ensure that future leaders learn the practices required for high-performing leadership in the chemical industry.
Isocyanides are valuable linchpins for assembling heterocycles and peptidomimetics, which are privileged structures in material and medicinal applications. A major limitation to the implementation of isocyanides for accessing these desirable products is that there are only seven commercially available examples. This research program is working expand these systems by designing new reactions that form more complex examples of these important building blocks and increase the types of bond connections that isocyanides can be used to prepare. Specifically, this project is designing methods for: alkenyl isocyanides to undergo conjugate addition reactions, aryl isocyanides to participate in multicomponent processes to form complex heterocycles, and boroalkylisocyanides to be prepared and used in cross coupling reactions to form more complex isocyanide products. This research program also serves as an excellent training ground for graduate and undergraduate researchers who are also participating in retreats to hone their work-life balance skills and to prepare for future leadership roles in chemistry careers.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
