An interactive computer program, CAMEO, is being developed to predict the products of organic reactions given the starting materials and conditions. The program uses mechanistic principles and precedent-based rules for broad classes of reactions to make its predictions. Consequently, an important aspect of the project is the search for organizing principles that govern organic reactivity in addition to the development of a resource to aid in the analysis and design of synthetic pathways. The program's current capabilities are significant with sophisticated treatment of several important classes of reactions including base catalyzed and nucleophilic processes, thermal pericyclic chemistry, acid catalyzed and electrophilic reactions, free radical chain reactions, and functional group oxidations. The intentions are to expand and refine the program in many ways. The most important additions will be for transition metal organometallic chemistry, photochemistry, catalytic hydrogenations, dissolving metal reductions, and three-dimensional structure generation and utilization. Broader distribution of the program is also planned through a version for the Apple Macintosh II computer. The Synthetic Organic Chemistry Program is supporting the continuation of the development of this computer based program CAMEO to predict reactivities of synthetic reagents and their reaction products. This has the potential to greatly improve the efficiency of the synthetic procedures used to meet the increasingly complex requirements of our economy.
