伊人直播

报告摘要

Efficient methods for achieving desaturation of α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds are highly sought after in organic chemistry. In contrast to traditional synthetic approaches, enzymatic desaturation systems offer the potential for enhanced sustainability and selectivity but have remained elusive. In this talk, I will introduce a versatile and general enzymatic desaturation system based on flavin-dependent ene-reductases for desymmetrizing cyclohexanones. This innovative platform facilitates the synthesis of a wide array of chiral cyclohexenones bearing quaternary stereocenters—structural motifs commonly present in bioactive molecules—with remarkable yields and enantioselectivities. Mechanistic insights into this novel enzymatic desaturation process are provided through a combination of experimental investigations and computational studies. Furthermore, leveraging these insights gained, we have devised an additional biocatalytic strategy for the synthesis of α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds by reductively desymmetrizing cyclohexadienones. This method yields the opposite enantiomer compared to our desaturation system, underscoring the complementary nature and broad applicability of our flavin-based desymmetrization approaches.

报告人简介

Dr. Liu Zhen obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering at Peking University in 2015. From 2015 to 2019, he pursued a Ph.D. at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California, under the supervision of Professor Keary Engle. During his doctoral studies, he developed a series of transition metal-catalyzed alkene difunctionalization reactions and applied these to the synthesis of drug molecules and their analogs. After graduation, he joined the laboratory of Nobel Laureate (2018) Professor Frances Arnold at Caltech for postdoctoral work, focusing on directed evolution of iron porphyrin proteins and catalytic reactions. His research on unnatural enzyme-catalyzed reactions based on nitrogen and carbene chemistry efficiently constructs carbon-nitrogen bonds in the synthesis of bioactive molecules. These findings have broad application prospects in chemical synthesis, biocatalysis, and drug development. Dr. Liu officially joined NIBS as a independent researcher in September 2022 and was selected for that year's Excellent Young Scientists Fund project (overseas) by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has published research results as the first (or co-first) author and correspondence author in international journals such as Nature Synthesis (2024), Nature Chemistry (2021), JACS (2016–2022, 5 papers), Angewandte (2019–2025, 4 papers), and ACS Catalysis (2019). He has a total of 36 publications in SCI journals, with over 2,800 citations.