Selective Halogenation and the Study of Noncanonical Lipids

Our group is particularly inspired by natural products not only because of their importance as synthetic targets but also due to their ability to serve as invaluable identifiers of unanswered chemical, medicinal, biological, and biophysical questions. One major focus of our research has been the selective halogenation of alkenes. Dihalogenation and halofunctionalization encompass some of the most fundamental transformations in our field, yet methods capable of accessing relevant halogenated motifs in a chemo-, regio-, and enantioselective fashion have been lacking. We are also interested in the practical total synthesis of halogenated and non-halogenated noncanonical membrane lipids. Progress, study, and applications in this vein will be discussed in detail.