Unnatural amino acids are starting materials of peptide drugs and small molecule drugs for AIDS and cancer. The research will focus on the study of new asymmetric catalytic synthesis of unnatural amino acids. Through two catalytic asymmetric synthetic method, unnatural amino acids should be more easily and straight forward to obtain, and more friendly to environment. That results in the lower price of unnatural amino acids and expand further application. The goal of Phase I is to obtain the optically pure amino acids through both catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation and catalytic asymmetric amination. Catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation is for the synthesis of aromatic based amino acids, and catalytic amination is for the non aromatic based amino acids. In Phase II we will build on these results to expand the reaction scopes and enlarge the scales to the production line.
