Abstract

Reactions in Flow to Enable Synthesis and Medicinal Chemistry

Aaron Beeler, Assistant Professor, Boston University

In the Beeler Research Group, we are developing new technologies and approaches to enable synthesis and medicinal chemistry. The lecture will highlight developments in challenging reactions which can be used to access bioactive small molecules which are critical in our multidisciplinary and collaborative research. A common theme in our lab is the use of flow chemistry to overcome boundaries that limit reactions and to develop efficient reaction processes. Why flow chemistry? Reactions have been carried out in batch vessels for over two centuries and amazingly the tools chemists use have remained largely unchanged. As such, many of the challenges presented by batch reactions are still unsolved. Limitations such as mass transfer, heat transfer, or photon penetration can undermine the potential of a reaction when using traditional batch reactors. However, these limitations are largely mitigated in flow which enables us to reconsider the utility of many transformations for application in synthesis. Ultimately, I hope to demonstrate how flow chemistry provides us a tool for development of new and more efficient reactions that are robust, highly scalable, and provide access to complex and novel chemotypes.