Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/E036848/1
Title:	Diene Templates for the Synthesis of Enantioselective Catalysts
Principal Investigator:	Brown, Dr JM
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Oxford Chemistry
Organisation:	University of Oxford
Scheme:	Standard Research
Starts:	01 February 2007	Ends:	31 October 2008	Value (£):	211,023
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Asymmetric Chemistry
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Chemicals Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology
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Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
Why is catalysis important, and why do we need to be able to do better? What is chirality and why do we need it? Cup your hands, touch the index middle and ring fingers and move them apart. Those fingertips and the middle knuckle make two tetrahedra (pyramids), which are mirror images of one another. Carbon chemistry is like that, since individual atoms make their bond connections along four equivalent directions (vectors) in 3D space, so that the carbon is at the centre of a tetrahedron. That means a carbon atom in a chain, connected to four different atoms or groups in one particular way, must possess a mirror image. Hence many carbon compounds can be connected in two different ways (like object and mirror image) / we call these enantiomers. The 3D structure (call it stereochemistry) of organic molecules needs to be taken into account in their synthesis, assembling them from smaller units.All the organic compounds in your body are in the form of one single enantiomer. That includes all the proteins, RNA, DNA and sugars / just about everything. Antibiotics, antiviral compounds and other drugs are usually small organic molecules that can exist as enantiomers. Most of the time only one of the two enantiomers is a good drug. The other may be just ballast or could even have a harmful effect. Clearly it is important for the organic chemist who makes drug molecules by synthesis from simpler fragments, to be able to control which enantiomer is made.The best way of carrying out single enantiomer synthesis is by catalysis, just as Nature does. A catalyst is a molecular machine; it can assemble two fragments to make a larger one, and can do this rapidly and repetitively many times over. We need an intelligent catalyst that joins the fragments together in one specific way only. That means the catalyst itself must itself be a single enantiomer, and the art of the organic chemist is to design ones that work in this way and try them out in practice. With the best catalysts, only a tiny amount is needed and the chemical process can be carried out without waste or side-products.That is the basis of this proposal; how to make better catalysts for single handed molecule synthesis, and how to develop new concepts that move the field forward.
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Organisation Website:	http://www.ox.ac.uk