PhD in Organic Chemistry (M/F)

The doctoral student will work at the Laboratory of Organic Synthesis (UMR7652 - https://lso.polytechnique.fr/) located at the Ecole Polytechnique. He/she will be integrated into the team "New Cycloaddition Reactions", which focuses on methodological developments in synthesis.

Nitrogen‑containing heterocycles display better interactions with biological targets and therefore are prone to be effective pharmacological agents [1]. In our research group, we focus on the development of original transformations relying on cycloaddition strategies towards the rapid construction of azacycles. [2]

In this context, this project aims to investigate the reactivity of readily available precursors of 1,4 nitrogenated zwitterionic dipoles via a palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative process. These transient species will be engaged in (4+2) cycloadditions to furnish six-membered heterocycles. This underexploited strategy will allow to control the regio- and diastereoselective outcome of the transformation through a screening of the palladium ligands. Chiral ligands will also be examined to access enantioenriched structures.

1) Njardarson et al. J. Chem. Ed. 2010, 87, 1348
2) Anaïs Scuiller, Nicolas Casaretto, and Alexis Archambeau, J. Org. Chem. 2023, 88, 9941−9945.
Antoine Roblin, Nicolas Casaretto, and Alexis Archambeau, Org. Lett. 2023, 25, 6453−6458