The Smith Laboratory focuses on the synthesis of complex, bioactive molecules, as well as the development of enabling tools in asymmetric catalysis. Natural products often serve as inspiration for the selection of such targets, since their structures have evolved over millennia to interact effectively with biological systems, though they are usually not optimized for medicinal use or easily available from natural sources. By providing sustainable and flexible access to such compounds, we hope to fine-tune their properties against various diseases and probe their mechanisms of action, with a long-term goal of developing new cancer treatments. In tandem with these efforts, we aim to discover novel catalyst platforms capable of expediting asymmetric access to these targets and providing chiral small molecules of medicinal value.
