White, M. Christina - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

个人简介

M. Christina White was born in Athens, Greece where she lived until the age of five. She received her undergraduate degree in biochemistry at Smith College, where she worked with Professor Stuart Rosenfeld in the area of host-guest chemistry. After a brief stint in the biology graduate program at Johns Hopkins University working with Professor Christian Anfinsen, she began her doctoral studies in chemistry under the direction of Professor Gary Posner. During that time, she initiated the hybrid Vitamin D3 analog program in his group. In 1999, she joined Professor Eric Jacobsen's labs at Harvard University as an NIH postdoctoral fellow. During this time, she developed the first synthetically useful methane monooxygenase (MMO) mimic system for catalytic epoxidations with hydrogen peroxide. Christina began her independent career as a member of the chemistry faculty at Harvard University in July of 2002. She joined the department of chemistry at the University of Illinois in the summer of 2005, where she is currently a Professor of Chemistry. Her group's research interests center around the development of highly selective C—H functionalization methods for streamlining the process of complex molecule synthesis. She has received numerous awards including the Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award (2002), the NSF CAREER Award (2006), Fellow of the UIUC Center for Advanced Study (2006), the Eli Lilly Grantee Award (2007), the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2008), the BMS Unrestricted “Freedom to Discover” Grant (2008), the Pfizer Award for Creativity in Organic Chemistry (2008), Amgen Young Investigator Award (2008), Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals New Investigator Award (2008), Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2008), AstraZeneca Excellence in Chemistry Award (2008), Abbott Young Investigator Award (2008), Sanofi Aventis "Visions in Chemistry" (2008), Roche Excellence in Chemistry Award (2009),Cope Scholar Award (2009), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2012), the Royal Society of Chemistry, Merck Award (2013), Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2014), Mukaiyama Award (2016), University Scholar, UIUC (2017).

研究领域

Among the frontier challenges in chemistry in the 21st century are (1) increasing control of chemical reactivity and (2) synthesizing complex molecules with higher levels of efficiency. Although it has been well demonstrated that given ample time and resources, highly complex molecules can be synthesized in the laboratory, too often current methods do not allow chemists to match the efficiency achieved in Nature. This is particularly relevant for molecules with non-polypropionate-like oxidation patterns (e.g. Taxol). Traditional organic methods for installing oxidized functionality rely heavily on acid-base reactions that require extensive functional group manipulations (FGMs) including wasteful protection-deprotection sequences. Due to their ubiquity in complex molecules and inertness to most organic transformation, C-H bonds have typically been ignored in the context of methods development for total synthesis. My laboratory has initiated a program to develop highly selective oxidation methods, similar to those found in Nature, for the direct installation of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon functionalities into allylic and aliphatic C-H bonds of complex molecules and their intermediates. Unlike Nature which uses elaborate enzyme active sites, we rely on the subtle electronic and steric interactions between C-H bonds and small molecule transition metal complexes to achieve high selectivities. Gaining a fundamental and predictive understanding of these interactions through mechanistic studies is one of the main goals and discovery engines of our research. Using these methods, my group aims to develop novel strategies for streamlining the process of complex molecule synthesis. Collectively, we aim to change the way that complex molecules are constructed by redefining the reactivity principles of C-H bonds in complex molecule settings.

近期论文

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"Manganese-catalysed benzylic C(sp3)–H amination for late-stage functionalization" Joeseph R. Clark, Kaibo Feng, Anasheh Sookezian and M. Christina White Nat. Chem., 2018, DOI: 10.1038/s41557-018-0020-0 "C–H to C–N Cross-Coupling of Sulfonamides with Olefins" Rulin Ma and M. Christina White J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2018, 140, 3202, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b13492 "Remote, Late-Stage Oxidation of Aliphatic C–H Bonds in Amide-Containing Molecules" Takeshi Nanjo‡, Emilio C. de Lucca Jr.‡ and M. Christina White J. Am. Chem. Soc. , 2017, 139, 14586, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b07665 "Catalytic C(sp3)−H Alkylation via an Iron Carbene Intermediate" Jennifer R. Griffin, Chloe I. Wendell, Jacob A. Garwin, and M. Christina White J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139, 13264, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b07602 "Oxidative diversification of amino acids and peptides by small-molecule iron catalysis" Thomas J. Osberger†, Donald C. Rogness†, Jeffery T. Kohrt, Antonia F. Stepan and M. Christina White Nature, 2016, 537, 214, DOI: 10.1038/nature18941 "Base-Metal Catalysis: Embrace the Wild Side." M. Christina White Adv. Synth. Catal., 2016, 358, 2364, DOI: 10.1002/adsc.201600766 "Enantioselective Allylic C–H Oxidation of Terminal Olefins to Isochromans by Palladium(II)/Chiral Sulfoxide Catalysis" Stephen E. Ammann†, Wei Liu†, and M. Christina White Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2016, 55, 9571, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201603576 "Aerobic Linear Allylic C–H Amination: Overcoming Benzoquinone Inhibition." Christopher C. Pattillo, Iulia I. Strambeanu, Pilar Calleja, Nicolaas A. Vermeulen, Tomokazu Mizuno, and M. Christina White J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2016, 138, 1265, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5b11294 "Remote Oxidation of Aliphatic C−H Bonds in Nitrogen-Containing Molecules." Jennifer M. Howell†, Kaibo Feng†, Joseph R. Clark, Louis J. Trzepkowski, and M. Christina White J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2015, 137, 14590, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5b10299 "A manganese catalyst for highly reactive yet chemoselective intramolecular C(sp3)–H amination." Shauna M. Paradine†, Jennifer R. Griffin†, Jinpeng Zhao, Aaron L. Petronico, Shannon M. Miller and M. Christina White Nat. Chem., 2015, 7, 987, DOI: 10.1038/NCHEM.2366