ASYNO2: Providing unprecedented concepts for the access of enantiopure Nitrogen-containing molecules

Organic synthesis, the culminating point of many areas, is greatly beneficial to European development of emerging technologies and asymmetric catalysis is amongst the most challenging but very powerful method to access enantiopure molecules. Provide new methods to access enantiopure compounds is of high interest when it comes, for instance, to drug delivery.

More than 40% of the new drugs approved by the FDA in 2015 bear chiral amine (20% in 2005).

This increasing need to access chiral amines and its precursors resonates as a call to chemists to pave new routes for the elaboration of these derivatives.

Despite the versatile nature of the nitro group, readily converted into amines or many other pharmaceutically relevant functionalities, no direct asymmetric nitrative process has been reported to date.

Herein, ASYNO2 aims to merge photoredox or electrochemical with asymmetric organo- or acid-catalysis for the development of the first asymmetric nitration reactions.

Despite this synthetic challenge, novel and very promising routes, along with the support of computational studies are considered and discussed in details in this research plan.

Preliminary results provided proof of concept at the synopsis of this collaborative work between the Laboratory of Catalysis and Organic Synthesis of the University of Fribourg (UniFr, photo- and electrochemistry, asymmetric synthesis expertise, Outgoing phase) and the Institute of Chemistry of Poitiers (IC2MP – UMR CNRS 7285 – France, Superacid and NMR expertise, return phase).

Superacid chemistry is only mastered by very few research groups in the world and is a European specificity of the group at Poitiers and will be applied for the first time to asymmetric catalysis.

Furthermore, this program will provide a prolific fellow with an internationally competitive training, with the aim of advancing the career of an autonomous scientist in the EU and the next generation of multidisciplinary researchers in pharmaceutical sciences.