The focus of this research is the development of methods for the synthesis of unsymmetrically substituted dihydroporphyrins in a regioselective and stereoselective manner. The dihydroporphyrins (chlorins) will be constructed in step-by-step fashion from linear tetrapyrroles. With this new award, the Synthetic Organic Program is supporting the research of Dr. Dennis H. Burns of the Department of Chemistry of Wichita State University. Professor Burns will focus his work on developing synthetic methods for the preparations of the chlorin class of natural products. These compounds serve as prosthetic groups for proteins that perform a diverse set of biological functions
