Our lab. seeks to discover, develop, and study new chem. reactions within the context of natural product total
synthesis. The chem. synthesis of natural products enables the study of their biol. properties, and can
provide access to synthetic derivs. with improved therapeutic properties or that can serve as mechanistic
probes. Importantly, these synthetic undertakings often highlight shortcomings of the existing state-of-the-art
and inspire the discovery of new chem. Our lab. has ongoing research programs targeting the chem. syntheses
of several natural products, including members of the epidithiodiketopiperazines, the ent-kauranoids, and the
acutumine alkaloids. The densely packed arrays of heteroatoms and stereogenic centers that constitute these
polycyclic targets challenge the limits of current synthetic methodol. This seminar will describe our latest
progress in both our methodol. and target-directed synthesis endeavors
