Faculty Bibliography

Various strategies have been developed recently for imparting light sensitivity onto normally insensitive cells. These include expression of natural photosensitive proteins, photolysis of caged agonists of native cell surface receptors and photoswitching of isomerizable tethered ligands that act on specially engineered ion channels and receptor targets. The development of chemical tools for optically stimulating or inhibiting signaling proteins has particular relevance for the nervous system, where precise, noninvasive control is an experimental and medical necessity.

[reaction: see text] A concise synthesis of rhazinilam through direct, palladium-catalyzed, intramolecular coupling is described.

[reaction: see text] The photochemical conversion of 9,10-deoxytridachione to photodeoxytridachione has been photosensitized. The conversion was also quenched by piperylene. Photodeoxytridachione was produced in good yields under conditions in which only the cyclohexadiene group is sensitized. The results show that some, and perhaps all, of the photoreactions of 9,10-deoxytridachione occur through a triplet excited state. The mechanistic and biosynthetic implications of these results are discussed.

[reaction: see text] A convergent, biomimetic total synthesis of the immunosuppressant polyketides SNF4435 C and D is described. The synthetic pathway features a stereo- and regioselective [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement as well as a high-yielding Stille coupling/8pi-6pi electrocyclization cascade.

The N-D stretching region in the infrared spectrum of the ammonia complex of tris-(2-methoxymethyl-phenol)-borane containing one D atom has been examined. The N-D bands have been hole burned, and the resulting spectra reveal the reorientation kinetics of the ammonia. The ammonia is hydrogen bonded with the bond distances and reorientation barrier typical of other compounds. The N-D stretching frequencies are higher than those of comparison compounds.

An asymmetric approach toward the [6-7-5] ring system of the guanacastepenes is described. [structure: see text]

[reaction: see text] The total synthesis of bicyclo[4.2.0]octane natural products elysiapyrones A and B is described.