Xin-Yuan Liu, Bin Tan and team members

Recently, Xin-Yuan Liu and Bin Tan joint group has published two papers in the Angewandte Chemie International Edition (ANGEW),which is an international weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal. Associate Professor Xin-Yuan Liu and associate professor Bin Tan come from the Chemistry Department of SUSTC. Together with the previous publications, the group has published six papers in ANGEW in two years.

The illustration of the paper

The screenshot of the paper

Spirooxindole scaffolds are the structuralmotifs frequently found in a large number of natural products and synthetic bioactive compounds. The group created a new avenue to access spirooxindoles in excellent yields and stereoselectivities, which would open upan unprecedented approach to trap the active intermediate with nitroalkene to form biologically important compounds with three continuous stereogenic centers. The feature of this method is highlighted by using chiralorganocatalysis for the activation of diazooxindoles for the facile construction of complex cyclic compounds and important structural motifs widely used in medicinal chemistry and diversity-oriented synthesis.

The illustration of the paper

The screenshot of the paper

Axiallychiral compounds are a component omnipresent in naturally occurring and synthetic biologically active molecules and are an important platform forchiral catalyst/ligand development within the fields of asymmetric catalysisand synthesis. The group developed the first enantioselectiveNi(0)-bisoxazoline-catalyzed asymmetric denitrogenative transannulation of1,2,3-benzotriazin-4(3H)-ones with bulky internal alkynes to form novel axially chiral isoquinolones in an atropselective manner. These axially chiral isoquinolones exhibit high cytotoxicity against a number of human cancer cell lines, suggesting a potential application of this class of axially chiral isoquinolones in anticancer studies. DFT calculations reveal the intrinsicatropselective nature of these transformations observed in the key annulationstep.

In addition, as the groupcontinued the research, new results are emerging. There are four other papers are under review by the international journals, including Nature Chemistry,Nature Communications，J. Am. Chem. Soc.,Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.

South University of Science and Technologyof China is the institution of the fist author and corresponding author. Financial support comes from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.21302088, 21302087), and South University of Science and Technology of China.

Links to the papers：

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201504640/abstract

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ange.201503207/abstract