# Novel Reagents and Catalysts for Organic Synthesis

> **NIH NIH R01** · BOSTON COLLEGE · 2021 · $328,650

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
The generation of chemical space and its translation into new functions is one of the main goals of synthetic
chemistry. The BN/CC isosterism (i.e., replacement of a carbon-carbon bond with a boron-nitrogen bond) has
emerged as a viable strategy to increase the chemical space of compounds relevant to biomedical research.
This proposal describes a new untapped avenue of exploration for BN/CC isosterism, namely a program
geared toward developing BN isosteres of arenes as useful reagents and catalysts for synthetic organic
chemistry applications. Potential benefits of research into these BN heterocycles (also known as azaborines)
include discovery of novel reactivity and selectivity that are unattainable by using conventional organic
compounds and the development of new mechanistic principles, both as a consequence of azaborine's unique
electronic structure.
Specifically, we seek to:
1) establish azaborines as four-carbon (4C) + 1 nitrogen (1N) + 1 boron (1B) synthon for synthetic applications
that exploit the preinstalled functional density of an azaborine, i.e., a nitrogen atom, a boron atom, and a 1,3-
butadiene unit to efficiently produce new aminoborylated compounds for diversity-oriented synthesis.
2) establish azaborines as a new family of ligands that can engage in distinct coordination modes with
transition metals to affect new reactivity and selectivity in metal-catalyzed transformations.
Completion of the proposed aims will yield new readily accessible and utilizable reagents and catalyst systems
that can accomplish synthetic transformations not readily achievable by existing methods.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10263287
- **Project number:** 5R01GM136920-02
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON COLLEGE
- **Principal Investigator:** Shih-Yuan Liu
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $328,650
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-15 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10263287

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10263287, Novel Reagents and Catalysts for Organic Synthesis (5R01GM136920-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10263287. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*