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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/M50843/01
Title: THE STEREOSELECTIVE BIRCH REDUCTION OF FURANS AND PYRROLES
Principal Investigator: Donohoe, Professor T
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Evotec (UK) Ltd
Department: Chemistry
Organisation: Victoria University of Manchester, The
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 08 November 1999 Ends: 07 November 2001 Value (£): 107,354
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Chemical Synthetic Methodology
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
This proposal is designed to investigate the Birch reduction of electron-deficient furans and pyrroles. Our early studies have shown that the basic reduction reaction works very well. This chemistry is at an exciting stage and we ask for support to really extend the methodology and apply it to natural products synthesis.We have developed the stereoselective Birch reduction of furans: this is a powerful reaction that we wish to apply to the synthesis of several interesting pyrrolidizine alkaloids: our routes are novel and particularly concise. This methodology could also be extended greatly by the reduction of hetero-atom substituted furoic-acid derivatives. We propose a synthesis of these heterocycles and also an application of the reduction to another useful class of natural product.We also have several interesting leads derived from the Birch reduction of pyrrole (this is a reaction that we developed ourselves). We want to explore these new reactions and apply the chemistry that we discover to the synthesis of biologically-active natural products. For example, we have discovered the reductive aldol reaction and also want to explore an interesting new doule reductive alkylation reaction of both pyrroles and furans.
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