Molecular Design

The study of the molecular interactions between biologically active natural products (cf. antitumor compounds, immunomodulators, enzyme inhibitors) and the corresponding cellular receptors is of great importance from a biological as well as medicinal point of view. A prerequisite for such studies are, besides the natural products themselves, appropriate analogs which however, have to be prepared by chemical synthesis. Therefore, an important research topic of our group is the rational design and the synthesis of modified analogs of natural products. In the case of synthetic projects that are derived from natural products, aspects such as topology, stereochemistry and reactivity have to be considered.

Current Projects:

Parallel synthesis of cyclic depsipeptides

Scaffolds for combinatorial synthesis

Synthesis of biological active compounds using natural strategies

Natural product synthesis - synthesis of macrolactones