The Lab Report Spring 2012 - Chemistry - Emory University

The Lab Report
Spring 2012
C-H Center Prepares for Evaluation
The NSF Center for Chemical Innovation on Selective C-H
Functionalization has been very active this past year as it gears
up for evaluation as a Phase II center. C-H functionalization, the
conversion of C-H bonds into C-X bonds where X is any of a variety
of heteroatoms or carbon, is widely recognized to have the potential
to be transformative across chemical disciplines. Traditionally C-H
bonds are very inert and therefore hard to activate; however, certain
catalysts make this possible and can render C-H bonds a functional
handle. Challenges remain in both regio- and stereoselectivity due
to the small differences in C-H bond strengths. As general methods
for the functionalization of specific C-H bonds are developed, these
methods are becoming powerful due to the ubiquity of C-H bonds
in organic, organometallic and biological molecules of interest.
The Center’s mission focuses on the impact that this new mode
of reactivity will have in material science, fine chemical synthesis
and drug discovery in addition to the potential paradigm shift C-H
functionalization could create in the way organic chemistry is taught.
The initial Phase I Center involved 6 PI’s: the center director Huw
Davies, Simon Blakey and Jamal Musaev at Emory, Justin DuBois at
Stanford, Jin-Quan Yu at Scripps, and Christina White at University
of Illinois U-C. During Phase I, the Center has not only fostered
numerous research collaborations but has facilitated a number of
student exchanges and outreach programs. A Communicating
Science course was offered in conjunction with the Center for
Chemical Education in which graduate students from across the
department practiced various methods of communicating with other
scientists, students and the public. A Graduate School Prep/Journal
Club was developed at Spelman College to help students prepare for
and be successful in graduate school. The Center has also started an
annual symposium on C-H Functionalization in order to engage the
entire scientific community not just center members.
• Total Synthesis: Erik Sorensen (Princeton), Mo Movassaghi
(MIT), Brian Stoltz (Cal Tech), Richmond Sarpong (UC Berkley)
• Methodology Development: John Montgomery (Michigan)
• Catalyst Design: Cora MacBeth (Emory), Matt Sigman (Utah),
Andy Borovik (UC Irvine)
• Computational Chemistry: Ken Houk (UCLA)
• Analysis of Reactive Intermediates: Donna Blackmond
(Scripps), John Berry (Wisconsin), Dick Zaire (Stanford)
• Flow Technologies: Chris Jones (Georgia Tech)
• Material Science: Seth Marder (Georgia Tech), Stefan France
(Georgia Tech), Christine Luscombe (Washington)
If the Phase II grant proposal gets funded, $20 M over the next
five years will be split between the 24 principal investigators and
their labs. It would allow for continued outreach in many forms,
including continuation of the Grad School Prep Club at Spelman
and expansion to additional local universities and to schools located
near other Center institutions as well. It would provide funding for
a post-doctoral position in outreach that would include training in
public communication in the form of blogging and animation. The
postdoc would also participate in the AAAS Mass Media Science and
Engineering Fellowship Program during which they would work with
a national media organization to communicate science to the public.
With Phase II funding the Center would also work toward expanding
undergraduate chemistry education to include covering more cutting
edge techniques and reactivity including C-H Functionalization.
The Center for Selective C-H Functionalization has already made an
impact at Emory and beyond, both to advance this exciting field of
research and to share it with both general and scientific communities.
In early March of this year, seven people from the Emory Chemistry
department (founding Center members Davies, Blakey and Musaev,
students Felicia Fullilove, Slava Boyarskikh, and Jen Bon, and staff
member Meisa Salaita) plus 13 other professors and students traveled
to NSF headquarters in Arlington, VA for the Phase II evaluation. The
Phase II proposal expands the center to a total of 24 PIs from 16
different universities and includes additional experts in the following
areas:
Department of Chemistry • 1515 Dickey Drive • Atlanta, GA • 30322