Tomislav Rovis
Columbia University, NY·Chemistry
Nitrogen appears in 88% of the more than 1,000 unique small-molecule drugs approved in the United States. Where nitrogen sits in a molecule affects how a drug binds its target and how the body handles it.
- Fields
Chemistry
- Topics
organic synthesis
synthetic methodology
catalysis
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2030
What they work on
- Develop reactions that build nitrogen-containing rings (heterocycles) directly from simple feedstocks such as alkenes and alkanes, forming carbon–carbon and carbon–nitrogen bonds in one step without later manipulation.
- Create methods to modify common amine building blocks through C–H functionalization, which converts unreactive carbon–hydrogen bonds into new bonds, with control over the molecule's three-dimensional shape.
- Use C–N activation, the breaking of carbon–nitrogen bonds, to let amines serve as handles in cross-coupling reactions that join molecular fragments.
- Design photocatalysts activated by low-energy orange light (560–600 nm) to form alkyl–aryl carbon–carbon bonds under mild conditions, in collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb.
- Use inexpensive copper catalysts driven by visible light to speed a difficult reductive elimination step, and build a machine learning platform that predicts optimal photocatalytic conditions with acetylacetonate ligands.
More about the research
Yet many nitrogen-containing structures, and the bonds that hold drug fragments together, are slow or impossible to make with current chemistry. The lab develops new chemical reactions that build these complex molecules from simple, cheap starting materials, often using catalysts driven by visible light. Two projects share this goal: one focuses on making and modifying amines and heterocycles (rings that contain nitrogen), and one works with the drug company Bristol Myers Squibb on light-driven reactions that address pharmaceutical bottlenecks.
Why it matters
Drug discovery is slowed when chemists cannot quickly make the molecules they want to test, and they may settle for less desirable structures. New reactions that build nitrogen-containing frameworks and carbon–carbon bonds from cheap starting materials under mild conditions could shorten synthetic routes for medicinal chemists. This could help pharmaceutical researchers assemble candidate therapeutics with better properties more efficiently.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Mark Biscoe
CUNY City College, NY·Chemistry
Develop palladium- and copper-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions that transfer handedness from enantioenriched secondary alkylboron reagents to new carbon centers with predictable retention or inversion.
Byoungmoo Kim
Clemson University, SC·Chemistry
Develop one-step, stereospecific and site-selective deoxygenative amination of alcohols, replacing the C–O bond with free amines or nitrogen-containing rings, using a sulfonyl fluoride reagent that reacts through SuFEx click chemistry.
Sarah Reisman
California Institute of Technology, CA·Chemistry
Develop a photoredox-catalyzed radical-polar crossover annulation (RPCA), a light-driven ring-forming reaction, to build the bridged bicyclo[3.2.1]octane core of the polyketide natural product enterocin.
The school
Columbia University: 89 labs on PI Pages, $1.4B a year on research, 625 research doctorates a year.
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