The discovery, development, scope, and mechanistic studies of three new copper-catalyzed transformations of organoboron compounds are described herein. Specifically, Chapter 1 details the development and scope of the first general method for SN2'-selective substitution of primary allylic chlorides using aryl boronic esters ...

Protein kinases are essential enzymes for cellular signaling, and are often regulated by participation in protein complexes. The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) p38 is involved in multiple pathways, and its regulation depends on its interactions with other signaling proteins. However, the weak and transient nature of ...

Organic reactions have wide spread applications in drug development, chemical biology, and materials science. However, traditional chemical techniques can be inefficient i.e., low yields and/or poor selectivity, for constructing structurally complex motifs and for selectively activating strong bonds. To address these problems, ...

A new method to synthesize substituted homoallylic amines is reported. Homoallylic amines are important structural moieties in natural products and pharmaceutical agents. The reaction couples N-nosyl-2-alkylaziridines with alkenylboronic acids under palladium catalysis. This work examines the role of base and proton donor ...

Nitrogen containing heterocylces make up a vast majority of biologically relevant small molecules. Using transition metal catalysts to directly synthesize functionalized amine heterocycles is a valuable and efficient tool in chemical synthesis. Herein, the development of two palladium-catalyzed transformations are described; ...

The investigation and development of synthetic methodologies for direct alkene difunctionalization is described. The utility of these processes is demonstrated by the synthesis of a number of functionalized nitrogen-containing heterocycles, including pyrrolidines and morpholines. As these are commonly-encountered motifs in a ...

Protein kinases are a large family of enzymes that play integral roles in cell signaling networks and are thus critical for effecting appropriate cellular responses to environmental stimuli. Much of kinase biological function has been studied in terms of catalytic activity: phosphorylation of substrate proteins as part of ...

More than 40 diseases have been associated with the misfolding of peptides (or proteins) that form fibrils with a very specific morphology. These peptides classified as amyloidogenic peptides have been implicated in the development of Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, Type II Diabetes, Hungtinton’s Disease etc. To ...

Organic electro-optic materials are at the forefront of current photonics applications that enable high speed data transmission, micro-scale sensors, and terahertz applications. Typically linearly conjugated push-pull type chromophores are the primary molecules of choice for various second and third order non-linear optical ...

The advent of conjugated polymers spurred the field of organic electronics. Since the inception of the field, many have lauded the potential benefits of organic over inorganic platforms, including their light weight, flexibility, and solution-processability, the latter of which makes them amenable to large-scale mass production. ...