Necessity is the mother of invention: Natural products and the chemistry they inspire

The chem. synthesis of natural products provides an exciting platform from which to conduct fundamental research in chem. and biol. We are currently focused on devising concise approaches to complex polycyclic natural products such as ryanodol, acutumine, and members of the diterpenoid alkaloids. The densely packed arrays of heteroatoms and stereogenic centers that constitute these polycyclic targets challenge the limits of current technol. and inspire the development of new synthetic strategies and tactics. This seminar will describe our latest progress in both our methodol. and target-directed synthesis endeavors.