Summary
With the support of the Chemical Synthesis Program in the Chemistry Section, Dr. Martin Tomanik of New York University is developing new approaches to build complex natural products, or secondary metabolites made by plants, fungi, and microorganisms. Such small molecules provide the basis for many important medicines, agrochemicals, and materials, but many of these compounds are difficult to prepare or modify using existing chemical techniques. As a result, the potential utility of many natural products is hindered by inefficient and laborious synthetic routes. A central tenet of this work is
