My group pursues natural product synthesis problems to promote the invention of new synthetic strategies and methodologies; to provide stringent tests of our newly-developed methods; and to generate synthetic analogues for collaborative projects requiring compounds with a specified biological activity. Particular areas of focus include targets with relevance to cancer chemotherapy, neurodegenerative disorders, and cognition. We also develop reaction mechanism-based hypotheses in order to discover new chemistry and gain insights which bear on reaction selectivity and efficiency. These two areas act cooperatively and most students in my group receive a broad training in mechanistic organic chemistry, multistep synthesis, and methodology development.

Dr Jeremy Robertson

Natural product synthesis and synthetic methodology

updated January 2010