The p-facial selectivity of carbonyl compounds has been at the core of synthetic organic chemistry for long time. The issue has been addressed by many individuals and many theoretical models have been proposed. We have proposed a very simple theoretical model which relies on the geometrical changes around the carbonyl group on coordination with a cation. This model has been successfully applied to many structural scaffolds.

The development of new reactions is another very important area of synthetic organic chemistry research as these allow the assembly of different skeletons with great ease. We have discovered a few new rearrangements and a few new reactions. Prominent among the rearrangements are: (i) 4,5-epoxy-2-oxepanone into 2,6-dioxabicyclo[3.3.0]octan-3-one which has been used by us in the syntheses of (+)-goniofufurone, (+)-7-epi-goniofufurone, (+)-goniopypyrone), Hagen's gland lactones and trans-kumausynes, (ii) azetidine into pyrrolidine in a stereospecific manner, and (iii) 3,3-dialkyl-2-silylmethylaze-tidine into 2-alkenyl-3-silylamines. In regard to the development of new reactions, we have made smart uses of small strained compounds and generated skeletons that are known to possess desirable biological effects.

The protocol developed for the construction of the tetrahydropyran skeleton is free from the often troubling 2-oxonia-Cope rearrangement and it thus provides an easy access to molecules like centrolobine and centrolobinetype. The protocol generating spiro-indenes from cyclopropylcarbinols may be expanded to develop optical light emitting diodes.

Our group will continue to focus on new reactions development and also the synthesis of molecules of biological interest but using only the home-grown methodologies as the key steps. Issues related to stereoselectivity arising from select structural elements will also be dealt with at theoretical levels.

 

• Route to 2-alkenyl-3-tert-butyldiphe- nylsilylamines and construction of a tricyclic ring system,
  Eur. J. Org. Chem., 4163 (2013).

• Rearrangement of  azetidine into pyrrolidine,
  Org. Biol. Chem., 10, 4390 (2012).

• Cyclohexanones via heteroaromatic homo-Nazarov cylcization of donor-acceptor substituted cyclopropanes,
  Chem. Commun., 3774 (2008).

• Indenes from silylmethyl-substituted cyclopropyl carbinols,
  Chem. Commun. 2281 (2007).

• Total syntheses of (+)-goniopypyrone and (+)-goniofufurones,
  Chem. Commun., 5232 (2007).

• The validity of s→s*#, s#→s* and s→p*C=O concepts in diastereoselection from NBO analysis,
  J. Org. Chem., 71, 4178 (2006).

• Aziridines and azetidines as masked 1,3- and 1,4-dipoles for formal [3+2] and [4+2] cycloaddition reactions,
  J. Am. Chem. Soc., 127, 16366 (2005).

• [3 + 2] Addition of acceptor-substituted cyclopropylmethylsilanes with arylacetylenes,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 43, 2669 (2004).

• Prins cyclization of silylmethyl-substituted cyclopropylcarbinols to tetrahydropyrans,
  J. Am. Chem. Soc., 126, 8652 (2004).

• Do the electronic effects of sulfur indeed control the p-selectivity of g-sulfenyl enones? A reinvestigation,
  J. Org.Chem., 69, 3866 (2004).

• IIT Kanpur 1990-

• Tokushima Bunri University, 2002-2003

• Visiting Professor: University des Rennes, France, 2002

• University of Southeren California, Los Angeles, 1989-1990

• University of Ottawa, Canada, 1988-1989

• Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Canada, 1984-1988

• Postdoctoral Fellow: University of Calgary, Canada, 1983-1984

• JSPS Visiting Professor at Tokushima Bunri University, Japan

• Ramanna Fellowship, Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India

• Member‐DST‐Project Advisory Committee

• Adjunct Professor‐ Fiji National University, Fiji

• Mentor and Advisor to Curadev Pharma Pvt Ltd, NOIDA for the project 'Novel Drugs forOncology & Diabetes

Office

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Office Phone: 0512-259-7439 (O)

Email: vijendra[AT]iitk.ac.in