Professor Cathleen Crudden
Professor Cathleen Crudden
Queen’s University
Abstract
Chirality in the Suzuki- Miyaura Cross-Coupling Reaction
The Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction has revolutionized the way chemists make carbon- carbon bonds. However, the method is primarily employed to construct C sp 2 –C sp 2 bonds resulting in flat molecules, which have lower bioactivity and selectivity compared to their three-dimensional counterparts. As these molecules populate pharmaceutical libraries, they inhibit the discovery of valuable new drug candidates. In this talk, our work enabling the introduction of chirality into the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction will be presented, including work using compounds with predetermined chirality, both in the nucleophile or electrophile. Work on the development of novel electrophiles based on sulfones will illustrate the versatility of these novel molecules in cross-coupling chemistry.
Cathleen Crudden
Dr. Cathleen Crudden is the A.V. Douglas Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in metal organic chemistry at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. She holds a Research Professorship at the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM) in Nagoya, Japan, where she runs a satellite laboratory. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Chemical Institute of Canada, the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) and an elected member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Crudden has made significant impact on diverse areas of science. She described one of the first cross-coupling reactions with chiral, enantiopure molecules that has made considerable impact on the preparation of pharmaceutical compounds. More recently, she has demonstrated the strength and versatility of N-heterocyclic carbene ligands in materials science, showing these ligands to be viable and versatile alternatives to thiolates as ligands for planar metal surfaces, nanoparticles and nanoclusters. This work has been called “game changing,” “elegant,” and “the new gold standard” by experts in the field.
Crudden has served as President of the Canadian Society for Chemistry and Chair of the Chemical Institute of Canada.She is Scientific Director of the Carbon to Metals Coatings Institute (C2MCI) at Queen’s University. She is currently Editor-in-Chief for ACS Catalysis. She has won numerous awards including the 2023 John Polanyi Award, a 2019 Cope Scholar award of the American Chemical Society, the Montreal Medal (2019), and the 2018 Carol Taylor award from the International Precious Metals Institute.
Hosted by Professor Gwen Bailey
331 Smith Hall
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