DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

Affiliations

Chemistry of Life Processes Institute (CLP)

Research Statement

Our collaborative and interdisciplinary program is at the forefront of the discovery of new catalytic reactions and their application in medicine and energy. Specifically, we have pioneered the use of small organic molecules as catalysts in a multitude of high value chemical transformations. These processes provide new avenues for molecular construction and offer sustainable advantages to established transition metal catalyzed approaches. In the realm of therapeutic translational science, we are creating new routes to natural products and related analogs with promising activities against cancer and central nervous system disorders.

Selected Publications

Lee, A.; Zhu, J. L.; Feoktistova, T.; Brueckner, A. C.; Cheong, P. H.-Y.; Scheidt, K. A.* “Carbene‐Catalyzed Enantioselective Decarboxylative Annulations to Access Dihydrobenzoxazinones and Quinolones,” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. , 2019, 58, 5941-5945

Betori, R. C.; McDonald, B. R.; Scheidt, K. A.* “Reductive Annulations of Arylidene Malonates With Unsaturated Electrophiles Using Photoredox/Lewis Acid Cooperative Catalysis,” Chem. Sci. 2019, 10, 3353-3359.

Maskeri, M. A.; O’Connor, M. J.; Jaworski, A. A.; Davies, A. V.; Scheidt, K. A.* “A Cooperative Hydrogen Bond Donor/Brønsted Acid System for the Enantioselective Synthesis of Tetrahydropyrans,” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 17225-17229.

McDonald, Benjamin R.; Scheidt, K. A.* “Intermolecular Reductive Couplings of Arylidene Malonates via Lewis Acid/Photoredox Cooperative Catalysis,” Org. Lett. 2018, 20, 6877-6881.

Schwamb, C. B.; Fitzpatrick, K. P.; Brueckner, A. C.; Richardson, H. C.; Cheong, P. H.-Y.; Scheidt, K. A.* “Enantioselective Synthesis of α-Amidoboronates Catalyzed by Planar-Chiral NHC-Cu(I) Complexes,” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140 (34), 10644-10648.

Xu, L.; Gordon, R.; Farmer, R.; Pattanayak, A.; Binkowski, A.; Huang, X.; Avram, M.; Krishna, S.; Voll, E.; Pavese, J.; Chavez, J.; Bruce, J.; Mazar, A.; Nibbs, A.; Anderson, W.; Li, L.; Jovanovic, B.; Pruell, S.; Valsecchi, M.; Francia, G.; Betori, R. Scheidt, K.; Bergan, R.* “Precision therapeutic targeting of human cancer cell motility,” Nat. Commun. 2018, 9, 2454.

Lee, A.; Betori, R. C.; Crane, E. A.; Scheidt, K. A.* “An Enantioselective Cross-Dehydrogenative Coupling Catalysis Approach to Tetrahydropyrans,” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140 (20), 6212-6216.

Uno, B. E.; Dicken, R. D.; Redfern, L. R.; Stern, C. M.; Krzywicki, G. G.; Scheidt, K. A.* “Calcium(II)-catalyzed enantioselective conjugate additions of amines,” Chem. Sci. 2018, 9, 1634-1639.

Hovey, M. T.; Cohen, D. T.; Walden, D. M.; Cheong, P. H-Y.; Scheidt, K. A. “A Carbene Catalysis Strategy for the Synthesis of Protoilludane Natural Products,” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 9864-9867.

Deibler, K. K.; Mishra, R.K.; Clutter, M. R.; Antanasijevic, A. Bergan, R.; Caffrey, M.; Scheidt, K. A. “A Chemical Probe Strategy for Interrogating Inhibitor Selectivity Across the MEK Kinase Family,” ACS Chem. Biol. 2017, 12, 1245-1256.

Selected Honors/Awards

• 2017 - Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher
• 2016 - Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
• 2016 - Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher
• 2015 - Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher
• 2015 - Northwestern University Graduate School Faculty Award for Diversity
• 2010-2014 - Dow Chemical Company Research Professor in Chemistry
• 2012 - Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Invitation Fellowship
• 2012 - Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• 2011 - Jeremiah P. Freeman Lecturer, University of Notre Dame
• 2009-2012 - Alumnae of Northwestern University Teaching Professor
• 2009 - Organic Syntheses Distinguished Lecturer, University of Toronto
• 2008-2010 - Irving M. Klotz Professor of Chemistry 
• 2008-2009 - GlaxoSmithKline Scholar Award
• 2007-2009 - Alfred P. Sloan Fellow
• 2007 - AstraZeneca Excellence in Chemistry Award
• 2007 - Novartis Chemistry Lecture Award