This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing theresources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject andinvestigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source,and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed isfor the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator.Because electrochemistry allows one to selectively manipulate the oxidation state of molecules, create reactive intermediates, and reverse the polarity of known functional groups, it provides and ideal method for discovering and exploring many new, synthetically useful reactions.For example, we have found that the anodic oxidation of electron-rich olefins leads to the formation of radical cations that efficiently trap nucleophiles. In this way, normally nucleophilic enolate equivalents can be used as electrophiles. Current efforts to exploit this unique umpolung reaction are focusing on the construction of natural products.In a similar fashion, we are taking advantage electrochemistry's ability to reverse the normal polarity of N-acyliminium ion formation in order to develop new approaches to diversity-oriented synthesis that allow for systematic variations within a core scaffold to synthesize receptor-targeted molecular libraries that contain conformational probes for rapidly gathering information about the three dimensional requirements of the receptor, and to construct new peptide-based bioconjugates.
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