Posted: July 3, 2025

Speaker: Prof. Varinder K. Aggarwal

Affiliation:

Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), Member of the European Academy of Sciences,
Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, University of Bristol, UK

Lecture Details:

 ◆ Date & Time: July 14, 2025 | 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

 ◆ Venue: Room 200, Xaguang Building | Xumingcai Auditorium

 ◆ Associate Professor Wu Jingjing

Abstract

Nature has evolved highly sophisticated machinery for organic synthesis, many of which resemble molecular assembly-line processes. So far chemists have been able to apply this type of approach in the synthesis of peptides, oligonucleotides and polysaccharides but it is much more difficult to apply iterative methodologies to organic synthesis. Here, we describe the application of iterative homologation of boronic esters using chiral lithiated carbamates and chloromethyllithium enabling us to grow carbon chains with control over both relative and absolute stereochemistry. Application of this strategy to the synthesis of the proposed structure of baulamycin and the real structure will be presented as well as other complex targets.

Brief introduction

Varinder K. Aggarwal studied chemistry at Cambridge University and received his Ph.D. in 1986 under the guidance of Dr. Stuart Warren. After postdoctoral studies (1986-1988) under Prof. Gilbert Stork, Columbia University, he returned to the UK as a Lecturer at Bath University. In 1991 he moved to Sheffield University, where he was promoted to Professor in in 1997. In 2000 he moved to Bristol University where he holds the Chair in Synthetic Chemistry. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2012.