Title: Mechanism-Informed Catalyst Design for Organic Synthesis and Chemical Biology Applications
Abstract: Nickel-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions have emerged as sustainable and cost-effective synthetic methods. While nickel operates via classical closed-shell pathways to catalyze biaryl coupling reactions, its ability to mediate radical pathways has significantly broadened the scope of cross-coupling to include a diverse range of alkyl motifs. Building on mechanistic insights, we developed the ProPhos ligand, which enhances the reactivity of nickel-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura couplings. This advancement paves the way for applying nickel catalysts in pharmaceutical process synthesis of heteroaromatic molecules. In parallel, our studies on nickel-mediated radical pathways elucidated the mechanistic details of radical initiation, capture, and bond formation. Leveraging this insight, we developed deoxygenative cross-coupling reactions that convert the hydroxyl group of serine and homoserine into a wide range of noncanonical functionalities, expanding the chemical space of noncanonical peptides.
Bio: Tianning Diao is a Professor of Chemistry at New York University (NYU). She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2012, followed by postdoctoral research at Princeton University from 2012 to 2014. Since her appointment at NYU in 2014, Diao’s research has been focused on understanding the mechanisms of nickel-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions and developing new methodologies to address challenges in organic synthesis and sustainable energy conversion. Diao is the recipient of multiple awards, including the NSF-CAREER award (2016), Sloan Research Fellowship (2018), Chinese-American Chemistry Professors Association Distinguished Junior Faculty Award (2018), Organometallics Distinguished Author Award (2018), Camille-Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2019), and the Cope Scholar Award (2023). Group website: https://www.diaogroup.org/
Hosts: Taylor Stephens and Jenna Krussman