News
This section serves as a dynamic way to keep the audience informed about the latest happenings and to showcase our group’s ongoing activities and achievements, including but not limited to Recent Research Achievements, Awards and Honors, Group Updates, Lab Activities, and Student Highlights.
2024
Our first PhD student, Kun Zhou has joined the team. He will work on developing biocompatible reactions and harnessing these reactions for drug discovery.
2018
Researchers have achieved a major breakthrough in organic chemistry by developing a silver-catalyzed method for directly functionalizing the δ-Csp3-H bonds in simple aliphatic alcohols under mild conditions. This innovative approach enables selective modification of inert Csp3-H bonds without pre-activation, offering excellent regioselectivity and a broad substrate scope. The method simplifies the synthesis of valuable functionalized alcohols and has the potential to transform alcohol synthesis.
2017
The innovative synthesis route for memantine, an important drug used in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease developed by our research team has been highlighted by Prof. Craig Lindsley, the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (JMC), in ACS Chemical Neuroscience. This method stands out as one of the shortest known routes for memantine synthesis, significantly streamlining the process and enhancing efficiency
Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have successfully functionalized nanodiamonds using our innovative decarboxylative azidation reaction. This single-step method directly grafts azide groups onto low-cost nanodiamonds through silver-mediated decarboxylation and radical substitution. The resulting materials achieve high surface group loadings (up to 0.85 mmol/g) and can be further modified for diverse applications. This technique simplifies nanodiamond synthesis and enhances their potential for use in biomedical imaging and advanced materials.