Independent Publications:

67.  Piejko, M.; Patrahau, B.; Joseph, K.; Muller, C.; Devaux, E.; Ebbesen, T. W.*; Moran, J.* “Solvent Polarity under Vibrational Strong Coupling”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, accepted.

66.   Dherbassy, Q.*; Mayer, R. J.; Muchowska, K. B.; Moran, J.* “Metal-pyridoxal cooperativity in nonenzymatic transamination”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, accepted.

65. Muller, C.; Horky, P.; Vayer, M.; Golushko, A.; Leboeuf, D.*; Moran, J.* “Synthesis of Functionalized Isochromans: Epoxides as Aldehyde Surrogates in Hexafluoroisopropanol”, Chem. Sci. 2023, 14, 2983-2989 (gold open access).

64. Beyazay, T.; Belthle, K.; Farès, C.; Preiner, M.; Moran, J.; Martin, W. F.*; Tüysüz, H.* . “Ambient temperature CO₂ fixation to pyruvate and subsequently to citramalate over iron and nickel nanoparticles” Nat. Commun. 2023, 14, 570 (gold open access).

• Highlighted by Nature Catalysis 2023, 6, 107 (link).

63. Pozhydaiev, V.; Vayer, M.; Fave, C.; Moran, J.*; Leboeuf, D.* “Synthesis of Unprotected β-Arylethylamines by Iron(II)-Catalyzed 1,2-Aminoarylation of Alkenes in Hexafluoroisopropanol” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, 62, e202215257 (gold open access).

62. Mayer, R. J.*; Moran, J.* “Quantification of the hydride donor abilities of NADH, NADPH, and BH₃CN^– in water” Org. Biomol. Chem. 2023, 21, 85-88 (gold open access).

61. Rauscher, S. A.; Moran, J.* “Hydrogen Drives Part of the Reverse Krebs cycle under Metal or Meteorite Catalysis” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2022, 61, e202212932 (gold open access).

• Selected as “Hot Paper”
• Highlighted by Phys.org, Unistra, ChemistryViews, Les Echos, ChemEurope, Astrobiology.com,

60. Mayer, R. J.*; Moran, J.* “Quantifying Reductive Amination in Nonenzymatic Amino Acid Synthesis” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2022, 61, e202212237 (gold open access).

59. Vayer, M.; Mayer, R. J.; Moran, J.; Leboeuf, D.* “Leveraging the Hydroarylation of α-(Trifluoromethyl)styrenes to Access Trifluoromethylated All-Carbon Quaternary Centers”, ACS Catal. 2022, 12, 10995-11001.

58.   Moran, J.* “Bringing inanimate matter to life”, Science 2022, 377, 39 (book review).

57.   Zeidan, N.; Bicic, S.; Mayer, R. J.; Leboeuf, D.*; Moran, J.* “Hydroarylation of Enamides Enabled by HFIP via a Hexafluoroisopropyl Ether as Iminium Reservoir”, Chem. Sci. 2022, 13, 8436-8443 (gold open access).

• Highlighted by Synfacts 2022, 18, 1015 (by Prof. Ben List)

56. Yi, J.; Kaur, H.; Kazone, W.; Rauscher, S. A.; Gravillier, L.-A.; Muchowska, K. B.; Moran, J.* “A Nonenzymatic Analog of Pyrimidine Nucleobase Biosynthesis” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2022, 61, e202117211 (gold open access).

• Selected as “Hot Paper”

55. Vayer, M.; Zhang, S.; Moran, J.;* Leboeuf, D.* “Rapid and Mild Metal-Free Reduction of Epoxides to Primary Alcohols Mediated by HFIP”, ACS Catalysis 2022, 12, 3309-3316.

54.   Zhang, S.; Vayer, M.; Noël, F.; Vuković, V. D.; Golushko, A.; Rezajooei, N.; Rowley, C. N.; Leboeuf, D.*; Moran, J.* “Unlocking the Friedel-Crafts Arylation of Primary Aliphatic Alcohols and Epoxides Driven by Hexafluoroisopropanol”, Chem 2021, 7, 3425-3441 (gold open access).

• Highlighted by Synform (pdf)
• Highlighted by Synfacts 2022, 18, 0313 (by Prof. Benjamin List)

53.   Mayer, R. J.; Kaur, H.; Rauscher, S. A.; Moran, J.* “Mechanistic Insight into Metal Ion-Catalyzed Transamination”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 19099-19111.

• Highlighted by JACS Spotlights
• Highlighted by C&EN

52. Chatelain, P.; Muller, C.; Sau, A.; Brykczyńska, D.; Bahadori, M.; Rowley, C. N.; Moran, J.* “Desulfonative Suzuki-Miyaura Coupling of Sulfonyl Fluorides” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 25307-25312.

51. Sau, A.; Nagarajan, K.; Patrahau, B.; Lethuillier-Karl, L.; Vergauwe,R. M.; Thomas, A.; Moran, J.*; Genet, C.*; Ebbesen, T. W.* “Modifying Woodward-Hoffmann stereoselectivity under vibrational strong coupling” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 5712-5717.

• Selected as a “Hot Paper”

50. Muchowska, K. B.; Moran, J.* “Peptide synthesis at the origin of life” Science 2020, 370, 767-768 (Perspective).

49. Isnard, R.; Moran, J.* “À l’origine de la vie : les premières formes de métabolismes sur Terre” L’Actualité Chimique 2020, 455, 24-30. (not peer-reviewed) (green open access)

48. Pozhydaiev, V.; Power, M.; Gandon, V.; Moran, J.* Leboeuf, D.* “Exploiting Hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) in Lewis and Brønsted Acid-Catalyzed Reactions” Chem. Commun. 2020, 56, 11548-11564 (feature article). (green open access)

47. Muchowska, K. B.*; Varma, S. J.; Moran, J.* “Nonenzymatic Metabolic Reactions and Life’s Origins” Chem. Rev. 2020, 120, 7708-7744. (green open access)

46. Montalvo-Acosta, J. J.; Dryzhakov, M.; Richmond, E.; Cecchini, M.*; Moran, J.* “A Supramolecular Model for the Co-Catalytic Role of Nitro Compounds in Brønsted Acid Catalyzed Reactions” Chem. Eur. J. 2020, 26, 10976-10980 (invited manuscript for the EuChemS special issue). (green open access)

45. Zhang, S.; Leboeuf, D.; Moran, J.* “Brønsted Acid and H-Bond Activation in Boronic Acid Catalysis” Chem. Eur. J. 2020, 26, 9883-98888 (invited manuscript for the Young Investigators special issue). (green open access)

44. Preiner, M.; Igarashi, K.; Muchowska, K. B.; Yu, M.; Varma, S. J.; Kleinermanns, K.; Nobu, M. K.; Kamagata, Y.; Tüysüz, H.*; Moran, J.* Martin, W. F.* “A hydrogen dependent geochemical analogue of primordial carbon and energy metabolism” Nature Ecol. Evol. 2020, 4, 534-542 (free read-only link)(green open access)

• Read the accompanying Behind the Paper blog post
• Formerly a pre-print on BioRxiv
• Highlighted by Science, Science Daily, Astrobiology.com, Heritage Daily, Bioengineer, phys.org, Focus magazine (Italian), Science and Life Russia (Russian)

43. Thomas, A.; Jayachandran, A.; Lethuillier-Karl, L.; Vergauwe, R. M. A.; Nagarajan, K.; Devaux, E.; Genet, C.; Moran, J.; Ebbesen, T. W. “Ground state chemistry under vibrational strong coupling: Dependence of thermodynamic parameters on the Rabi splitting energy” Nanophotonics  2020, 9, 249-255. (green open access)

42. Noël, F.; Yi, J.; Vuković, V. D.; Richmond, E.; Kravljanac, P.; Moran, J.* “Catalytic Synthesis of Trifluoromethylated Allenes, Indenes, Chromenes and Olefins from Propargylic Alcohols in HFIP” J. Org. Chem. 2019, 84, 15926-15947. (green open access)

41. Chatelain, P.; Sau, A.; Rowley, C. N.; Moran, J.* “Suzuki−Miyaura Coupling of (Hetero)Aryl Sulfones: Complementary Reactivity Enables Iterative Polyaryl Synthesis” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 14959-14963. (green open access)

• Selected as a “Hot Paper”
• Highlighted  in Synfacts 2019, 15, 1253
• Formerly a pre-print on ChemRxiv

40. Muchowska, K. B.; Varma, S. J.; Moran, J.* “Synthesis and breakdown of universal metabolic precursors promoted by iron” Nature 2019, 569, 104-107. (free link)(green open access).

• Read the Nature News & Views (Pascal)
• Read the accompanying Behind the Paper blog post (note: this was one of the most read posts of 2019!)
• Recommended (twice!) as “Exceptional” on F1000 Prime by Christopher J. Chang (chemical biology/bioinorganic chemistry) and by William F. Martin (genomes and evolution).
• Watch the video highlight from the American Society for Microbiology
• Highlighted by C&EN, Earth pages, phys.org, science bulletin.org, Futura (French), the CNRS (French), techno-science.net (French) and Unistra (French)
• Highlighted in C&EN’s “Top Chemistry Research of 2019 by the Numbers”
• Formerly a pre-print on ChemRxiv

39. Thomas, A.; Lethuillier-Karl, L.; Nagarajan, K.; Vergauwe, R. M. A.; George, J.; Chervy, T.; Shalabney, A.; Devaux, E.; Genet, C.; Moran, J.*; Ebbesen, T. W.* “Tilting a Ground State Reactivity Landscape by Vibrational Strong Coupling“. Science 2019, 363, 615-619. (green open access)

• Highlighted by Chemistry World (April 8, 2019), ACS Central Science (Kéna-Cohen & Yuen-Zhou), phys.org, and the CNRS (in French)
• Formerly a pre-print on ChemRxiv

38. Muchowska, K. B.*; Chevallot-Beroux, E.; Moran, J.* “Recreating ancient metabolic pathways before enzymes” Bioorganic Med. Chem. 2019, 27, 2292-2297 (invited account in honor of Raphael Rodriguez’s Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award). (green open access)

37. Chevallot-Beroux, E.; Ako, A. M.; Schmitt, W.; Twamley, B.; Moran, J., Boudon, C.; Ruhlmann, L.; Mameri, S.* “Synthesis of New Mn19 Analogues and their Structural, Electrochemical and Catalytic Properties”, Dalton Trans. 2019, 48, 4830-4836. (green open access)

36. Richmond, E.; Yi, J.; Vuković, V. D.; Sajadi, F.; Rowley, C. N.; Moran, J.* “Ring-opening hydroarylation of monosubstituted cyclopropanes enabled by hexafluoroisopropanol” Chem. Sci. 2018, 9, 6411 (gold open access).

35. Varma, S. J.; Muchowska, K. B.; Chatelain, P.; Moran, J.* “Native iron reduces CO2 to intermediates and end-products of the acetyl CoA pathway” Nature Ecol. Evol. 2018, 2, 1019-1024 (free read-only link)(green open access).

• See the accompanying Behind the Paper blog post
• Recommended as “Exceptional” on F1000Prime
• See press highlights from Phys.org (English), Spektrum.de (German), Investigación Y Ciencia (Spanish), Techno-science (French).
• See press releases from CNRS (French), Unistra (French)

34. Richmond, E.; Vuković, V. D.; Moran, J.* “Nucleophilic Ring Opening of Donor-Acceptor Cyclopropanes Catalyzed by a Brønsted Acid in Hexafluoroisopropanol” Org. Lett. 2018, 20, 574-577. (green open access)

33. Richmond, E.*; Moran, J.* “Recent Advances in Nickel Catalysis Enabled by Stoichiometric Metallic Reducing Agents” Synthesis 2018, 50, 499-513 (invited review). (green open access)

32. Dryzhakov, M.; Moran, J.* “Update on Borinic Acid. B,B-Bis(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorophenyl)” Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis 2018.

31. Muchowska, K. B.; Varma, S. J.; Chevallot-Beroux, E.; Lethuillier-Karl, L.; Li, G.; Moran, J.* “Metals promote sequences of the reverse Krebs cycle” Nature Ecol. Evol. 2017, 1, 1716-1721 (free read-only link)(green open access).

• See our accompanying Behind the Paper blog post
• Recommended as “Exceptional” on F1000Prime
• Highlighted by the CNRS and Techno-science.net (French only)
• Chosen as one of the CNRS’ most notable papers of 2017 in the category VIVANT (Life)

30. Vuković, V. D.; Richmond, E.; Wolf, E.; Moran, J.* “Catalytic Friedel-Crafts Reactions of Highly Electronically Deactivated Benzylic Alcohols” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 3085-3089 (green open access).

• Highlighted in Synfacts 2017, 13, 479

29. Dryzhakov, M.; Richmond, E.; Li, G.; Moran, J.* “Catalytic B(C6F5)3•H2O-Promoted Defluorinative Functionalization of Tertiary Aliphatic Fluorides” J. Fluor. Chem. 2017, 193, 45-51.

28. Richmond, E.; Moran, J.* “Harnessing Complex Mixtures for Catalyst Discovery” Synlett 2016, 27, 2637-2643 (invited Synpacts highlight article).

• Selected as cover article (December 1, 2016)

27. Thomas, A.; George, A.; Shalabney, A.; Dryzhakov, M.; Varma, S. J.; Moran, J.; Chervy, T.; Zhong, X.; Devaux, E.; Genet, C.; Hutchison, J.; Ebbesen, T. W. “Ground state chemical reactivity under vibrational coupling to the vacuum field” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 11462-11466 (collaboration with Ebbesen group).

• Selected as Hot Paper.
• Highlighted by “In the Pipeline” blog by Derek Lowe (Science Translational Medicine)

26. Haar, S.; Bruna, M.; Lian, J. X.; Tomarchio, F.; Olivier, Y.; Mazzaro, R.; Morandi, V.; Moran, J.; Ferrari, A.; Beljonne, D.; Ciesielski, A.; Samori, P. “Liquid Phase Exfoliation of Graphite with α-Functionalized Alkanes” J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2016, 7, 2714-2721 (collaboration with Samori group).

25. Richmond, E.; Khan, I. U.; Moran, J.* “Enantioselective and Regiodivergent Functionalization of N-Allylcarbamates by Mechanistically Divergent Multicatalysis” Chem. Eur. J. 2016, 22, 12274-12277.

24. Dryzhakov, M.; Moran, J.* “Autocatalytic Friedel-Crafts Reactions of Tertiary Aliphatic Fluorides Initiated by B(C6F5)3•H2O“ ACS Catalysis 2016, 6, 3670-3673.

23. Dryzhakov, M.; Richmond, E..; Moran, J.* “Recent Advances in Direct Catalytic Dehydrative Substitution of Alcohols” Synthesis 2016, 48,  935-959 (invited review).

• Selected as cover article (April 1, 2016)

22. Dryzhakov, M.;‡ Hellal, M.;‡ Wolf, E.; Falk. F. C.; Moran, J.* “Nitro-Assisted Brønsted Acid Catalysis: Application to a Challenging Catalytic Azidation” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 9555-9558. (‡These authors contributed equally).

• Highlighted in Org. Chem. Highlights 2016, May 30
• Highlighted on Organic Chemistry Portal
• Highlighted in Amphoteros (a blog by Prof. Andrei Yudin)

21. Richmond, E.; Moran, J.* “Ligand Control of E/Z Selectivity in Nickel Catalyzed Transfer Hydrogenative Alkyne Semi-Reduction” J. Org. Chem. 2015, 80, 6922-6929.

• Highlighted on Organic Chemistry Portal.

20.  Wolf, E.; Richmond, E.; Moran, J.* “Identifying Lead Hits in Catalyst Discovery by Screening and Deconvoluting Complex Mixtures of Catalyst Components” Chem. Sci. 2015, 6, 2501-2505. (open access)

19.  Hellal, M.; Falk, F. C.; Wolf, E.; Dryzhakov, M.; Moran, J.* “Breaking the Dichotomy of Reactivity vs Chemoselectivity in Catalytic SN1 Reactions of Alcohols” Org. Biomol. Chem. 2014, 12, 5990-5994.

Mentored Publications:

18.    Moran, J.; Krische, M. J. “Formation of C-C Bonds via Catalytic Hydrogenation and Transfer Hydrogenation” in Sustainable Catalysis; Hii, K. K. Ed., Wiley-VCH: Weinheim, 2013, Vol. 1.

17.    Moran, J.; Krische, M. J. “Enantioselective Carbonyl Allylation and Crotylation from the Alcohol Oxidation Level via C-C Bond Forming Transfer Hydrogenation” in Asymmetric Synthesis – The Essentials II; Christmann, M., Bräse, S., Eds, Wiley-VCH: Weinheim, 2012.

16.    Moran, J.; Krische, M. J. “Ruthenium-Catalyzed Formation of C-C Bonds via Transfer Hydrogenation” Pure Appl. Chem. 2012, 84, 1729-1739 (Invited Review).

15. Legault, M.; McKay, C.; Moran, J. Lafreniere, M.; Pezacki, J.P. “Novel intramolecular cyclization and subsequent rearrangements of alkyne tethered N-heterocyclic carbenes”, Tetrahedron Lett. 2012, 53, 5663.

14.    MacDonald, M. J.; Schipper, D. J.; Ng, P.; Moran, J.; Beauchemin, A. M. “A Catalytic Tether Strategy: Simple Aldehydes Catalyze Intermolecular Alkene Hydroaminations” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 20100-20103.

• Highlighted in Nature Chem. 2012, 4, 253-254.
• Highlighted in Synfacts 2012, 8, 210.

13.    Moran, J.; Smith, A. G.; Carris, R.; Johnson, J. S.; Krische, M. J. “Polarity Inversion of Donor-Acceptor Cyclopropanes: Disubstituted δ-Lactones via Enantioselective Iridium Catalysis” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 18618-18621.

• Highlighted in Synfacts 2012, 8, 173.

12.    Zbieg, J. R.; Moran, J.; Krische, M. J. “Diastereo- and Enantioselective Ruthenium Catalyzed Hydrohydroxyalkylation of 2-Silyl-Butadienes: Carbonyl Syn-Crotylation from the Alcohol Oxidation Level”   J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 10582-10586.

11.    Moran, J.; Preetz, A.; Mesch, R. A.; Krische, M. J. “Iridium-catalysed direct C-C coupling of methanol and allenes” Nature Chem. 2011, 3, 287-290.

• Highlighted in C&EN News (Feb. 28, 2011)
• Highlighted in RSC Chemistry World (Feb. 27, 2011)

10.    Moran, J.; McKay, C. S.; Pezacki, J. P. “Strain-Promoted 1,3-Dipolar Cycloadditions of Diazo Compounds with Cyclooctynes” Can. J. Chem. 2011, 89, 148-151 (Invited contribution in honour of Prof. J. C. Scaiano).

9.     McKay, C. S.; Moran, J.; Pezacki, J. P. “Nitrones as Dipoles for Rapid Strain-Promoted 1,3-Dipolar Cycloadditions with Cyclooctynes” Chem. Commun. 2010, 46, 931-933.

8.     Moran, J.; Pfeiffer, J. Y.; Gorelsky, S. I.; Beauchemin, A. M. “Ketonitrones via Cope-Type Hydroamination of Allenes” Org. Lett. 2009, 11, 1895-1898.

7.     Moran, J.; Dimitrijevic, E.; Lebrun, M.-E.; Bédard, A.-C.; Séguin, C.; Gorelsky, S. I.; Beauchemin, A. M. “Intermolecular Cope-Type Hydroamination of Alkenes and Alkynes using Hydroxylamines” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 17893-17906.

6.     Cebrowski, P. H.; Roveda, J.-G.; Moran, J.; Gorelsky, S. I.; Beauchemin, A. M. “Metal-Free Intermolecular Hydroamination of Alkynes Using Hydrazines” Chem. Commun. 2008, 492-493.

5.     Beauchemin, A. M.; Moran, J.; Lebrun, M.-E.; Seguin, C.; Dimitrijevic, E.; Zhang, L.; Gorelsky, S. I. “Intermolecular Cope-Type Hydroamination of Alkenes and Alkynes” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 1410-1413.

4.     Moran, J.; Cebrowski, P. H.; Beauchemin, A. M. “Intermolecular Hydroaminations via Strained (E)-Cycloalkenes” J. Org. Chem. 2008, 73, 1004-1007.

3.     Moran, J.; Dornan, P.; Beauchemin, A. M. “Strain-Release Electrophilic Activation via E-Cycloalkenones” Org. Lett. 2007, 9, 3893-3896.

2.     Moran, J.; Suen, T.; Beauchemin, A. M. “Photoinduced 1,4-Additions of Indoles to Enones” J. Org. Chem. 2006, 71, 676-679.

1.     Scott, S. L.; Church, T. L.; Nguyen, D. H.; Mader, E. A.; Moran, J. “An investigation of catalyst/cocatalyst/support interactions in silica-supported olefin polymerization catalysts based on Cp*TiMe₃” Top. Catal.  2005, 34, 109-120.