Research

In the past decades, efficiently building molecular complexity has been realized as a main mission for synthetic organic chemists towards practical and sustainable synthesis of pharmaceuticals, natural products, and agrochemicals. Despite significant advances, many classes of small molecules and chemical reactions remain challenging to the synthetic community.To this end, the Gnaim Research Group focuses on expanding the retrosynthetic analysis toolbox of organic chemists through the development of new and practical chemical reactions driven by synthetic electrochemistry, catalysis, and reagent development.Broadly, through the exploration of unusual reactivity/selectivity series, we envision the development of electrochemically driven metal catalysis as a unique platform for C-C bond formation through C-H activation and/or functionalization of unsaturated bonds.Additionally, we are interested in studying virtually unexplored boron intermediates for the invention and implementation of new borylation methods in synthesis.This synergistic approach to method development allows for broad and complementary training in organic synthesis, electrochemistry, and metal catalysis with its various applications in material and bioorganic chemistry.