An efficient chiral Brønsted acid-catalyzed enantioselective dehydrative Nazarov-type electrocyclization (DNE) of electron-rich aryl- and 2-thienyl-β-amino-2-en-1-ols is described. The 4π conrotatory electrocyclization reaction affords access to a wide variety of the corresponding 1 H-indenes and 4 H-cyclopenta[ b]thiophenes in excellent yields of up to 99% and enantiomeric excess (ee) values of up to 99%. Experimental and computational studies based on a proposed intimate contact ion-pair species that is further assisted by hydrogen bonding between the amino group of the substrate cation and chiral catalyst anion provide insight into the observed product enantioselectivities.

The discovery of UDG inhibitors against prostate cancer by using a robust photoluminescence screening assay that can avoid false negatives arising from the background fluorescence.

A synthetic method that combines [Au 2 (m-dppm) 2 ]Cl 2 (dppm = bis(diphenylphosphanyl)methane) and UVA LED (LED = light emitting diode) light (365 nm) to catalyze the regioselective C1-alkynylation of N-alkyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinolines (THIQs) with alkynyl bromides is described. The reaction mechanism was delineated to involve a reductive quench pathway to generate the two posited radical species of the nitrogen-containing heterocycle and organic halide. In contrast, radical formation via an oxidative quench pathway was suggested to be operative in analogous control experiments with a 1-iodoalkyne. The usefulness of this carbon-carbon bond forming strategy was also exemplified by its application to the formal synthesis of the opioid analgesic drug methopholine and synthesis of a protoberberine alkaloid derivative.