This three-year award supports U.S.-France cooperative research in organic synthesis between David Crich of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Michelle Bertrand of the University of Aix Marseille III. The research involves synthetic applications of radical chemistry and focuses on a series of experiments to probe, understand and apply radical cyclization reactions in asymmetric synthesis. The investigators will synthesize a variety of carbon-carbon dienyl acetates and identify their cyclization reactions. Radical cyclizations induced through the addition of sulfonyl to alkenes will also be studied. The U.S. investigator brings to this collaboration expertise in the design of new free radical chain reactions and their application to the synthesis of complex molecules. They will continue to work on acyl radicals and their cyclizations reactions and the used of diastereoselection radical reactions in carbohydrate chemistry. This is complemented by the French investigators' work on the study of sulfonyl radical cyclizations. Radical cyclizations have been extensively studied in recent years and are now employed in organic synthesis. Macrocyclizations, which is addressed by the investigators, have not been studied. Results of this research may lead to new techniques that provide the basis for designed synthesis of new materials and natural products.
