Inspired by nature: Biomimetic synthesis of natural products

Biosynthetic pathways enable the formation of diverse and sometimes highly complex molecular architectures and, it is needless to say that they provide an inexhaustible source of inspiration to chemists. We will present recent works from our team in the field of biomimetic total synthesis of natural substances. We will particularly emphasize on examples where polycyclic molecules may, in principle, be assembled through cascade reactions from simple reactive precursors. Selected targets (mainly involving l-lysine and l-tryptophane metabolisms) that will be presented during the talk are shown in the following figure.

Selected review articles:

- E. Gravel, E. Poupon, Nat. Prod. Rep. 2010, 27, 32–56.

- E. Poupon, E. Gravel. Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2008, 27–42.