Synthesis

The core expertise of the Armstrong group is synthetic organic chemistry: this includes catalysis, especially organocatalysis, stereocontrolled synthesis, and the synthesis of biologically active compounds. We apply our skills to the determination of catalytic reaction mechanisms, using in situ reaction monitoring, kinetics and modelling, and to the interface with biology, including protein-ligand engineering, synthesis of molecular probes and new methods for drug discovery.

Prof Armstrong holds a Royal Society Industry Fellowship (2011-2015) with Pfizer Neusentis, aimed at developing new synthetic chemical biology tools to aid drug discovery.

Allen CE, Curran PR, Brearley AS, et al., 2015, Efficient and Facile Synthesis of Acrylamide Libraries for Protein-Guided Tethering, Organic Letters, Vol:17, ISSN:1523-7060, Pages:458-460 Armstrong A, Pullin RDC, Jenner CR, et al., 2014, Tertiary amine-promoted enone aziridination: investigations into factors influencing enantioselective induction, Tetrahedron-asymmetry, Vol:25, ISSN:0957-4166, Pages:74-86 Armstrong A, Emmerson DPG, Milner HJ, et al., 2014, [2,3]-Sigmatropic Rearrangement of Allylic Selenimides: Strategy for the Synthesis of Peptides, Peptidomimetics, and N-Aryl Vinyl Glycines, Journal of Organic Chemistry, Vol:79, ISSN:0022-3263, Pages:3895-3907 Armstrong A, Boto RA, Dingwall P, et al., 2014, The Houk-List transition states for organocatalytic mechanisms revisited, Chemical Science, Vol:5, ISSN:2041-6520, Pages:2057-2071 Bures J, Dingwall P, Armstrong A, et al., 2014, Rationalization of an Unusual Solvent-Induced Inversion of Enantio-meric Excess in Organocatalytic Selenylation of Aldehydes, Angewandte Chemie-international Edition, Vol:53, ISSN:1433-7851, Pages:8700-8704