The course is built around the idea of reaction mechanisms. Whereas chemists have discovered many thousands of reactions, only
twelve common mechanistic motifs and
eight less-common pathways can explain the vast majority of these reactions. We will identify these simple building blocks and show you how they make it much easier to learn and understand organic chemistry.
Topics to be covered:
- Addition Reactions of Alkenes (mostly)
- Aromatic Substitution Reactions and Related Chemistry
- Pericyclic and Electrocyclic Reactions
- Nucleophilic Additions to Polarized Multiple Bonds
- Enols and Enolates
The course will give the student an understanding of the design, synthesis and interactions of drug molecules. Emphasis will be on the organic chemical principles and reactions vital to drug design and drug action. Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to demonstrate an understanding of the concepts involved in drug design and drug interactions, drug synthesis and biological evaluation.
Topics to be covered:
- Introduction
- Drug Discovery, Design and Development
- Receptors
- Enzymes
- Enzyme Inhibition and Inactivation
- DNA-Interactive Agents
- Special Topics (if time permits)
The goal of this course is to provide a comprehensive overview of the essentials of graduate level knowledge in organic chemistry. This course will provide a strong theoretical background that the students can use as a foundation for their thesis work.
Section on Pericyclic Reactions: Cycloadditions, fragmentations and rearrangements:
- The effects of orbital symmetry on pericylic reaction
- Diels-Alder reactions
- 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions and other cycloadditions
- Cope, Claisen and other sigmatropic rearrangements
- Electrocyclic reactions
