New Strategies for the construction of linear-fused carbon ring systems

Linear fused carbon ring systems are widely found in many areas of natural product, pharmaceutical and materials chemistry. For example, the tetracycline antibiotics are of much current interest, and have been widely used for more than half a century, although new routes for their preparation are still required, as are new analogues due to the emergence of bacterial resistance. The tetracycline class is characterized by a carbon skeleton of four linearly fused six-membered carbon rings. Other interesting linear fused ring systems include the Juglone series of natural products that show a wide range of biological activities including antibacterial, anti-cancer and anti-thrombotic activity; and the C-aryl glycoside antibiotics, including vineomycinone B2, galtamycinone and idarubicin that show a range of activities including anti-tumour activity.In this proposal we present speculative, adventurous and versatile new routes to access linear fused carbon ring systems that could ultimately allow novel entry to the important classes of compounds noted above.