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State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China
CHEN Jijun's Group
CHENG Yongxian's Group
HAO Xiaojiang's Group
LIU Jikai's Group
LUO Xiaodong's Group
QIU Minghua's Group
ZENG Ying's Group
Pema-Tenzin Puno's Group
TAN Ninghua's Group
ZHANG Yingjun's Group
ZHAO Qinshi's Group
LUO Huairong's Group
LI Yan's Group
LI Shenghong's Group
YANG Yurong's Group
XIA Chengfeng's Group
ZHAO Jinhua's Group
QIN Hongbo's Group
WU Bin's Group
XU Gang's Group
ZHOU Jun's Group
LIU Haiyang's Group
XIONG Wenyong's Group
HU Kaifeng's Group
LI Fei's Group
Location: Home > State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China > YANG Yurong's Group > Major Research Achievements
Major Research Achievements

Research Interests

Professor Yang’s research group is concerned with two areas: (1) the total synthesis of complex natural products, in particular those with important bioactivity and fascinating structure; and (2) the development of new methods and strategies in synthetic organic chemistry, including the applications of asymmetric catalysis for total synthesis.

 

Very recently, we have developed a new enantioselective indole cyclization strategy for the asymmetric synthesis of akuammiline alkaloids. The cyclization reaction employs the combination of Lewis acid activation with an iridium catalyst and a Carreira ligand, and readily accessible 2,3-disubstituted indoles with C-2 racemic secondary allylic alcohols and C-3 heteroatoms. Based on this reaction, the first asymmetric total synthesis including the assignment of the absolute configuration of (-)-aspidophylline A has been achieved (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, DOI: 10.1021/anie.201511549).

We also report a concise and highly enantioselective total synthesis of (-)-alstoscholarisine A, a recently isolated monoterpenoid indole alkaloid that has significant bioactivity in promoting adult neuronal stem cells proliferation. A highly enantioselective (99% ee), intramolecular Ir-catalyzed Friedel-Crafts alkylation of indole with a secondary allylic alcohol was utilized to establish the first stereogenic center upon which the other three contiguous chiral centers were readily set by a highly stereoselective tandem 1,4-addition and aldol reaction. The key tetrahydropyran was constructed through a hemiacetal reduction, and the final aminal bridge was forged by a one-pot reductive amination/cyclization. The conciseness of this approach was highlighted by building core bonds in each step with a minimalist protecting group strategy (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.6b00625).

 

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