Research
The overarching aim of our research programme is the pursuit of inventing and harnessing novel chemical reactivity concepts that open up new opportunities for synthesis-driven solutions to small molecule and biomacromolecule-based challenges.
Our research is currently focused across a number of distinct areas of chemical synthesis: metal-catalyzed C–H activation; visible light-mediated photoredox catalysis & photochemistry; high oxidation state enantioselective copper catalysis; complex molecule synthesis; synthesis-driven chemical biology; and the merger of high throughput experimentation with data science to drive next generation chemical synthesis.
SYNTHETIC
METHODOLOGY
SYNTHETIC
METHODOLOGY
The Gaunt group is chiefly interested in developing novel synthetic strategies to access a variety of structural motifs via entirely new disconnections and with unprece-dented ease. We have been especially interested in the synthesis of C(sp3)-rich scaffolds incorporating alkyl amines by C–H activation and photochemistry as well as Cu-catalysed arylation protocols.
SYNTHETIC
METHODOLOGY
COMPLEX
MOLECULE
SYNTHESIS
COMPLEX MOLECULE
SYNTHESIS
Synthesis of complex molecules (e.g. natural products) is a compelling platform with which to demonstrate the utility and versatility of synthetic methodologies. The Gaunt group routinely uses this concept to adapt our synthetic methods toward streamlined synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant compounds with unprecedented ease.
COMPLEX
MOLECULE
SYNTHESIS
SYNTHESIS-DRIVEN
CHEMICAL
BIOLOGY
SYNTHESIS-DRIVEN CHEMICAL BIOLOGY
In recent years, the Gaunt group has made it their mission to tackle open challenges in chemical biology by wielding their expertise in the areas of synthetic methodology and chemical reactivity. In seeking selective and bioorthogonal derivatisation approaches, we have targeted both seldom-functionalised amino acids such as methionine as well as other biomacromolecules.
SYNTHESIS-DRIVEN
CHEMICAL
BIOLOGY
HIGH-
THROUGHPUT
EXPERIMENTATION
HIGH-THROUGHPUT
EXPERIMENTATION
We are interested in the merger of high-throughput experimentation (HTE) with data science to drive next generation chemical synthesis. Using state of the art automated technologies, the HTE platform provides an opportunity for rapid reaction development, novel reaction discovery and prediction of chemical reactivity.