Organocatalytic Meldrum's acid Chemistry – OMaChem

OMaChem - Organocatalytic Meldrum’s acid Chemistry – aims at studying original organocatalyzed synthetic methodologies towards the construction of bio-relevant chiral heterocycles making use of novels/underexplored chemical reactivity of Meldrum’s acid derivatives; cheap (< 0.8 €/g), storable, safe and readily available starting materials as a C2 synthon. Following sustainable organocatalytic methodologies, encompassing novel and facile annulation processes upon multicomponent reaction approaches, this project intends to shed light on new synthetic methodology space while overcoming the limitations of existing reactions. Then, the construction of novel heterocyclic architectures displaying unprecedented substitution pattern will be tackled to initiate a fragment-based screening program in order to identify bio-relevant chiral-ligands. This strategy will make use of a proprietary SPR (Surface Plasmon Resonance) innovative microarray manifold developed by NovAliX industrial partners of OMaChem, allowing the rapid evaluation towards various bio-receptors. On the other hand, the OMaChem project intends to shed light on mechanisms in action with Meldrum’s acid initiated domino reactions upon organocatalysis. Accordingly, a collaborative triptych Synthesis-Mass Spectrometry-Theoretical Chemistry, involving three specialized teams is set in OMaChem. First of all, the mass spectrometry Team will strive to fish out of the flask the reaction intermediates by means of high standard ESI-MS (Electrospray Ionisation Mass Spectrometry) and ESI-IM-MS (Electrospray Ionisation - Ion Mobility - Mass Spectroscopy) technics in order to elucidate the main reaction pathways. Then, the computational Team will work to explicit, from a theoretical point of view, the activation barriers and the reaction pathways. Then, a more rational approach would be allowed towards organocatalytic Meldrum’s acid chemistry in OMaChem ANR project.