Christopher Sandford
University of Texas at San Antonio, TX·Chemistry
Drug discovery often starts with building large collections of related molecules, each with a small change, and testing which ones are biologically active. Making these libraries quickly, and with automated machines, requires reactions that change one part of a molecule while leaving its other reactive parts untouched.
- Fields
Chemistry
- Topics
organometallic catalysis
photoswitchable catalysts
photochemistry
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2029
What they work on
- Develop an organometallic catalyst whose site selectivity switches when irradiated with different wavelengths of visible or ultraviolet light, so one catalyst can react at different sites on a molecule.
- Apply the light-switchable catalyst to iterative one-pot cross-coupling, selectively activating either C(sp2)–X or C(sp3)–X bonds to form new carbon–carbon bonds depending on the light used.
- Investigate whether the switchable complex can remove a hydrogen atom from a bound alcohol, oxidizing it in place for later reductive cross-electrophile coupling with various reaction partners.
- Use wavelength-controlled catalysis to build biologically relevant motifs, such as polyol chains with defined 3D structure, in a way compatible with automated parallel synthesis.
More about the research
The project asks whether a single catalyst can be told, by changing the color of light, which part of a molecule to react with next.
Why it matters
Medicinal chemists need fast ways to make many variations of a drug candidate so they can see which structural changes improve activity. Light-switchable catalysts that build molecules step by step in a single pot could speed up the making of chemical libraries for drug screening. Because the methods are designed to work with automated synthesis platforms, they could fit directly into medicinal chemistry laboratories.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Vladimir Gevorgyan
University of Texas at Dallas, TX·Chemistry
Develop a visible light–induced hybrid method that combines a transition-metal catalyst with radical steps to convert unactivated C(sp3)–H bonds, the single carbon–hydrogen bonds common in drugs, without acids or added oxidants.
Sebastien Laulhe
Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis, IN·Chemistry
Design aryl radicals with tuned steric bulk and electronic properties, generated from light-activated electron-donor-acceptor (EDA) complexes, to remove hydrogen atoms selectively from specific C(sp3)-H bonds.
Richard Liu
Harvard University, MA·Chemistry·Early-career
Demonstrate that organic, metal-free "pseudometal" catalysts can perform oxidative addition and reductive elimination, then assemble these steps into catalytic cycles that mimic palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling.
The school
University of Texas at San Antonio: 10 labs on PI Pages, $172M a year on research, 129 research doctorates a year.
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