# New Catalysts, Strategies and Methods for Stereoselective Chemical Synthesis

> **NIH NIH R35** · BOSTON COLLEGE · 2024 · $573,500

## Abstract

Project Summary
A major thrust of the proposed studies is founded on the principle that a molecule's contour is key
to its ability to elicit biological response, making it crucial that methods for precise alteration of its
three-dimensional shape are available. The PI's long-standing experience in the design and
development of olefin metathesis strategies, catalysts and methods will serve toward establishing
innovative ways of transforming highly complex but readily available (i.e., purchasable and
inexpensive) bioactive natural products to their corresponding skeletally altered analogs. The
resulting entities, as shown recently in the PI's NIH-funded program, will represent new drug leads
for the same or a different disease area. Molecules containing a medium or large ring and at least
one olefin will be at the center of the proposed investigations. A new class of catalysts will be
designed to promote efficient ring-opening metathesis of otherwise unreactive rings; after chain
extension by cross-metathesis or olefin isomerization, ring-closing metathesis will be used to
access expanded or contracted cyclic structures, respectively. Another aspect of the proposed
studies will entail developing ways of precisely altering the shape of complex and easily
accessible cyclic or polycyclic compounds that do not contain a readily modifiable functional
group. New strategies will thus be developed for introducing unsaturation and then using olefin
metathesis-based processes to expand or contract their ring(s), resulting in precise alteration of
the molecule's overall shape. Another key aim will be the development of catalytic
multicomponent diastereo-, and enantioselective transformations that will transform readily
accessible molecules to highly complex and readily modifiable products, which can be used as
platforms for the generation of a variety of bioactive compounds and potential drug leads.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10842083
- **Project number:** 2R35GM130395-06
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON COLLEGE
- **Principal Investigator:** AMIR H HOVEYDA
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $573,500
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2019-01-01 → 2029-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10842083

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10842083, New Catalysts, Strategies and Methods for Stereoselective Chemical Synthesis (2R35GM130395-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10842083. Licensed CC0.

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