Asymmetric Synthesis and Retrosynthesis

The aim is to provide the highest possible level in organic synthesis, and especially in asymmetric synthesis, so that the students can get a job in pharmaceutical and related companies or pursue an academic carrier in organic synthesis.

The stereo- & enantiocontroled construction of molecules - asymmetric synthesis - has becomen a key part of organic synthesis. The bases of asymmetric synthesis will thus be first provided and then exemplified through various enantioselective total syntheses.
Strategy and retrosynthesis is also a key part of this class. Retrosynthesis rules will first be examined and illustrated, and then applied to selected examples of natural product targets.

Organic Synthesis: context & perspectives

• History, roles, applications
• Chirality, complexity
• Planification, Protecting groups

Asymmetric Synthesis

• Principes
• Enantiomer separations
• Chirons
• Prochiral substrates
• Chiral auxiliaries
• Chiral reagents
• Asymmetric Catalysis
• Organocatalysis

Total Syntheses

• Analysis & retrosynthesis
• Compared strategies

• Analyze & understand scientific publications
• Develop rigorous scientific arguments
• Solve complex problem through reasoning and successive approximations
• Apply reactivity models
• Validate or not models according to experimental results
• Capacity to appreciate the limit(s) of a model
• Design the synthesis of (asymmetric) organic molecules