Memorial University, Ph.D. (2010) Université de Montréal, Postdoctoral Fellow (2013)

Organic

The central theme of our group’s research program is target-oriented chemical synthesis (vide infra). Under this vastly defined area, our group will concentrate on the synthesis of architecturally complex molecules that are relevant to medicinal chemistry and nanoscale science. We are interested in the synthesis of natural products, analogues thereof, nucleic acid modifications that can be used as gene silencing therapeutics, and curved aromatic systems that will serve as molecular templates in the bottom-up chemical synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Deeply rooted in all of the synthesis projects carried out in our laboratories will be the development of new synthetic technologies that address current weaknesses that exist in the arena of chemical synthesis. It is hoped that this vision will facilitate the discovery of new, powerful synthetic disconnections that can ultimately be used to streamline synthetic approaches to bioactive compounds, enable analogue synthesis of more potent medicines, and improve the current state of the art for CNT synthesis.

Design and Strategy in Organic Synthesis: From the Chiron Approach to Catalysis, Hanessian, S., Giroux, S.; Merner, B. L., Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany, 2013 [ISBN 978-3-527-31964-0].

Merner, B. L.; Unikela, K. S.; Dawe, L. N.; Thompson, D. W.; Bodwell, G. J. Chem. Commun. 2013, 49, 5930-5932 [DOI: 10.1039/c3cc043268h].

Hanessian, S.; Schroeder, B. R.; Giacometti, R. D; Merner, B. L.; Østergaard, M. E.; Swayze, E.; Seth, P. P Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 11242-11245 [DOI: 10.1002/anie.201203680].

Merner, B. L.; Dawe, L. N.; Bodwell, G. J. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 5487-5491 [DOI: 10.1002/anie.200806363].