The research field of protometabolism, including work from our lab and quotes from Joseph and Kamila, is the subject of an article in National Geographic. Thanks to Michael Marshall for this accessible piece. Read it here.
National Geographic
New publication
Jing’s work on a non enzymatic analog of pyrimidine nucleobase biosynthesis has been accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Congrats!
New publication
Marie and Shaofei’s rapid method for the reduction of epoxides to primary alcohols has been accepted for publication in ACS Catalysis. Congrats!
Dr. Silvana Pinna joins the lab
A warm welcome to Silvana Pinna, who joins us from the group of Prof. Nick Lane at University College London, where she investigated the prebiotic chemistry of ATP. Welcome, Silvana!
Dr. Weiqiang Chen joins the lab
A warm welcome to Weiqiang Chen, who joins us from the group of Prof. Martin Oestreich at the TU Berlin, where he developed surrogates for gaseous or toxic reagents. In our group, Weiqiang will work on both prebiotic and synthetic chemistry. Welcome, Weiqiang!
New publication
Our paper on a large expansion of the Friedel-Crafts reaction has been accepted for publication in Chem. We describe Friedel-Crafts reactions with primary aliphatic alcohols and electronically deactivated epoxides, as well as sequential Friedel-Crafts reactions stemming from epoxide-opening, all without pre-activation. This was a massive project with over 170 examples, some of it reaching back nearly 4 years. Congrats to Shaofei, Marie, Florent, Vuk and Andrei and to our DFT collaborators in the Rowley lab (Carleton).
New publication
Robert, Harpreet and Sophia’s re-evaluation and mechanistic study of metal ion-catalyzed transamination under biological conditions has been accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Congrats!
Valentyn and Maciej join as PhD students
The eighth incoming class of PhD students joins the group. Valentyn, funded by the CSC Graduate School, will work on HFIP-enabled catalysis. Maciej, partially funded by the Région Grand-Est, will work on Vibrational Strong Coupling. A warm welcome to both!
New publication
Our article on expanding the Suzuki-Miyaura coupling to aryl sulfonyl fluorides has been accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Special thanks to Maryam Bahadori and Chris Rowley (Carleton University) for the DFT calculations. Congrats to Paul and the rest of the team!
Abhijit thanks the EU for a H2020 Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellowship (project 792101)!
Dr. Shaofei Zhang
Congrats to Shaofei Zhang on successfully defending his thesis! He is the ninth PhD student to graduate from the group. Special thanks to jury members Prof. Abder Amgoune (Lyon), Prof. Tanja Gulder (Leipzig, via Zoom), and Dr. Morgan Donnard (Strasbourg) for being part of the jury, which was done partly in person and partly over Zoom. Best of luck in your return to China and in your next role!
The Moran Research Group 