# New Cooperative Catalysis Concepts for Asymmetric Synthesis

> **NIH NIH R35** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $393,357

## Abstract

Project Summary
Advances in 21st century medicine have greatly impacted society, but a serious need persists for new
therapeutics that either exploit known biological processes or possess novel mechanisms of action. The
development of new, selective, and enabling chemical methodology to drive the rapid investigation of the
reactivity and biological activity of natural products and related probes is vital to understanding their
mechanism of action and developing new therapeutics for the treatment and/or prevention of disease. A
primary goal of our research program is to discover and develop new cooperative catalytic, stereoselective
transformations that facilitate the highly efficient construction of valuable materials. The new methods
advanced in this proposal have a) significant and highly encouraging preliminary results, and b) been inspired
by bioactive molecules/natural products that will subsequently facilitate the efficient construction of these
targets and potential applications towards clinical endpoints. The innovative cooperative catalytic strategies we
are pursuing will power investigations of biological processes relevant to the discovery of new potential
therapies and strategies that generate the targeted bioactive molecules while providing broad solutions to
synthesizing related families of compounds.
The specific goals of this research are: a) the exploration of new, cooperative carbene catalyzed processes, b)
the development of stereoselective catalytic carbocation-driven transformations, c) the investigation of Lewis
acid-catalyzed -Umpolung type radical reactions, and d) the merger of photocatalytically-generated reactivity
with biocatalysis. We anticipate that these research activities will fundamentally advance human health by
providing innovative tactics and strategies to access many important classes of health relevant compounds.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10416024
- **Project number:** 5R35GM136440-03
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Karl A Scheidt
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $393,357
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-06-01 → 2025-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10416024

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10416024, New Cooperative Catalysis Concepts for Asymmetric Synthesis (5R35GM136440-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10416024. Licensed CC0.

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