Molecular editing 

The Li group is focused on designing new strategies to modify the carbon framework of natural products with the goal of achieving atom-swapping reactions. In a reaction sequence involving heteroatom insertion, carbon extrusion, and carbon-heteroatom bond formation, we are developing transition-metal catalyzed process to address challenges in the carbon extrusion step.

Synthesis and study of atropisomerism in macrocyclic cyclophanes

Macrocyclic cyclophanes provide fertile ground for investigating phenomena resulting from atropisomerism. In 2023, we developed a modular synthesis of a series of metacyclophanes using Pd-catalyzed C-O bond forming macrocyclizations. Having removed the barrier to synthetic access, we are now designing and studying molecules with unique three-dimensional shapes that truly escape from flatland.

Graduate students in the Li group will learn a combination of method development, synthesis, asymmetric catalysis, and where relevant, organometallic chemistry, to understand and solve the problems they are interested in.

Group news

• Apr 2024 - Liang-Yu is awarded the David N. and Minnie I. Wall Graduate Fellowship. Well-deserved!
• Apr 2024 - Udayan receives the Edward V. Sayre Chemistry Scholarship. Congratulations!
• Apr 2024 - Shengkai becomes a member of ISU's Chapter of Sigma Xi!
• July 2023 - Liang-Yu's work on skeletal editing by decarboxylation is online.
• May 2023 - Shengkai's and Liang-Yu's paper on the catalytic enantioselective synthesis of planar chiral metacyclophanes is published!
• Mar 2023 - Our work on atom-swapping reactions as part of recent developments in skeletal editing is highlighted in Chemistry World.
• Nov 2022 - We say goodbye to Quang and wish him all the best for the future.
• Sep 2022 - Tian's paper on Ni(cod)(DQ)-catalyzed C-N coupling is online!
• Aug 2022 - We say goodbye to Ne and wish him all the best at MIT.
• Jul 2022 - Our group's projects on atom swapping have received NIH funding under the MIRA ESI program!
• Feb 2022 - Our C-to-O atom swapping reaction sequence is highlighted in Chemistry World.
• Jan 2022 - Our first paper on atom swapping is published!