Latent Nucleophiles in Lewis Base Catalysis

Ivan Vilotijevic

Research in the Vilotijević group at FSU Jena focuses on discovering new and improving the existing patterns of reactivity of organic molecules. These serve as the foundation for the development of catalytic transformations that will meet the needs of modern society in biomedical fields, address the environmental challenges related to energy and sustainability and push the limits of what is possible in organic synthesis. The core research projects in the group are in Lewis base catalysis, Organocatalysis and Organophosphorus chemistry. These efforts are grounded in the fundamental aspects of organic chemistry and inspired by our scientific curiosity, but they are frequently guided and directed by the needs of modern medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutical, and biomedical research. We use the newly developed and other methods to prepare molecules of interest in different scientific fields. Several collaborative projects in the area of natural product research and synthesis of bioactive molecules and probes are currently pursued in collaboration with other groups in Jena. These include total synthesis of natural products and their analogs as well as the design and synthesis of probes for biological research and new fluorophores.