SYNTHETIC METHODS AND METHODOLOGY 1. New Oxidative Amidation of Phenols 1.1 Oxidative Transformations of Phenolic and Indolic Oxzolines The oxidative cyclization of a phenolic amide to a spirolactam

We approach chemical synthesis by identifying biomedically interesting natural products that offer an opportunity for methodology development. Thus, a potential target is subject to extensive retrosynthetic analysis to evaluate possible routes. This may reveal that a yet unknown reaction would facilitate the synthetic problem. Suitable methodology is then developed and ultimately applied to the molecule in question. Indeed, every total synthesis completed in this group has introduced new techniques. A selection of the methods developed in this laboratory, and of the target molecules for which they were devised, is provided below, together with relevant literature references.