Radical Retrosynthesis

DRA lecture held by Assist. Prof. Sebastian Clementson, Department of Chemistry, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Natural products research provides a window into exploring new reactions and chemical spaces. The combination of radical and polar reactivity provides a powerful framework for the retrosynthesis of complex bioactive natural products. By exploiting oxidized and strained building blocks as radical precursors, acceptors, and polarity-switching handles, our group has developed strategies that rapidly assemble carbocyclic frameworks and enable downstream annulation, skeletal editing, and redoxstate
adjustment.
These concepts have been applied to the synthesis of diverse terpene families, including melicodenones, eudesmanolides, kaurane- and phyllocladane-type frameworks, as well as an ongoing diterpene total synthesis. Together, this work highlights radical retrosynthesis as a unifying design principle for converting simple functionalized precursors into structurally complex natural products with potential as drug lead compounds.

The lecture is organised on behalf of the graduate programme in pharmaceutical sciences, Drug Research Academy, by Professor Christian Adam Olsen, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen.

The DRA lecture is free of charge and open for attendance by all interested parties. It is not necessary to pre-register.