This two-year award for U.S.-U.K. collaboration in organic synthetic chemistry involves Robert E. Gawley and a postdoctoral researcher from the University of Miami and Iain Coldham of the University of Exeter. The objective of the collaboration is to develop new methods for the synthesis of complex heterocyclic compounds. The investigators will extend their work on the configurational stability of aminoorganolithiums. Both groups have studied reactivity patterns in these generally unstable compounds and propose to identify structural characteristics using complementary sets of related, yet different compounds.
The U.S. investigator brings to this collaboration a unique approach to the study and development of unstabilized alpha-lithio amines. This is complemented by the U.K. investigator's expertise on the structure and preparation of the compounds. His laboratory prepared a compound that demonstrated configurational stability even at room temperature. The project will advance understanding of new methods for synthesizing complex nitrogen heterocycles and of the science of organic synthesis. Heterocyclic compounds are important to pharmacology because the vast majority of pharmaceutical drugs contain the cyclical arrangement of molecules that are typically found in this system.
