Natural Product Inspired Scaffolds for Pharmaceutical Discovery

The project seeks to develop novel sustainable synthetic methods for assembly of bioactive compounds in a collaborative project with cancer sciences to identify inhibitors of metastatic cancer cells. Specifically, continuous photochemical and electrochemical synthetic methodology is to be developed and applied to the creation of heterocyclic core structures, which are present in a group of inhibitors. The project will investigate new synthetic strategies to heterocyclic core structures that are unsymmetrically substituted, and devise methods to react these in a selective fashion to produce candidates for evaluation as inhibitors of metastatic cancer cells. The "reagent free" approaches being investigated will deliver impact though new methodology to minimise chemical inputs into synthesis and manufacture, which is part of the EPSRC Dial-a-Molecule road-map. Existing synthetic approaches are highly restricted by the use of toxic and costly catalysts, or very low rates of production, which limit the quality and amount of material available and would ultimately render them unsuitable for manufacturing. The research will benefit from access to innovative electrochemical and photochemical flow reactors developed as part of the Programme Grant EP/P013341/1, which allow laboratory scale-up of key intermediates.