Aldrich Lecture

A critical challenge for synthetic chemists is control of site-, regio-, diastereo-, and enantioselectivity of organic transformations. Our group is currently developing a general strategy for controlling these elements through the use of an exchangeable directing group. We have designed an organic scaffold that reversibly and simultaneously binds an organic substrate and catalyst. The value of our strategy is that we can apply a synthetically useful functional group to bind to the scaffold, and then tailor the structure for optimal performance in the desired transformation.