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

Cao, J.; Schull, C. R.; Scheidt, K.A.* “Deconstructive Radical-Radical Coupling for Programmable Remote Acylation,” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2025, e202507542.

Schull, C. R.; Cao, J.; Mitton-Fry, S. R.; Mrksich, M.; Scheidt, K.A.* “C(sp3)-H Carboxylation via Carbene Photoredox Cooperative Catalysis,” ACS Catalysis, 2025 15, 1287-1293.

Peng, Q.; Hwang, M. U.; Rentería-Gómez, A.; Mukherjee, P.; Young, R. M; Qiu, Y.; Wasielewski, M. R.; Gutierrez, O.; Scheidt, K. A.* “Photochemical Phosphorus-Enabled Scaffold Remodeling of Carboxylic Acids,” Science 2024, 385, 1471-1477.

Kim, D. R.; Orr, M. J.; Yu, X.; Munshi, H. H.; Wang, A.; Trudeau, C. R.; Kwong, A. J.; Cheng, S.-Y.*; Scheidt, K. A.* “Synthesis and Structural Optimization of ATG4B Inhibitors for the Attenuation of Treatment-Induced Autophagy in Glioblastoma,” ACS Med. Chem. Lett. 2024, 15, 2, 258–264.

Nam, Y.; Tam, A. T.; Miller, E. R.; Scheidt. K. A.* “A Platform for the Synthesis of Corynantheine-type Corynanthe Alkaloids,” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 118–124.

Tanaka, N.; Zhu, J. L.; Valencia, O. L.; Schull, C. R.; Scheidt, K. A.* “Cooperative Carbene Photocatalysis for b-Amino Ester Synthesis,” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 24486–24492.

Byun, S.; Hwang, M. U.; Wise, H.R.; Bay, A. V.; Cheong, P.H.-Y.*; Scheidt, K.A* “Light-Driven Asymmetric Carbene-Catalyzed Radical-Radical Coupling,” Angew. Chem. It. Ed. 2023, DOI: 10.1002/anie.202312829.

Orr, M. J.; Cao, A.; Wang, T. C.; Gaisen, A.; Csakai, A.; Friswold, A.; Meltzer, H. Y.; McCorvey, J. A.*; Scheidt, K. A.* “Discovery of Highly Potent Serotonin 5-HT2 Receptor Agonists Inspired by Heteroyohimbine Natural Products,” ACS Med. Chem. Lett. 2022, 3, 648–657.