In a paper appearing today in the Just Accepted section of J. Am. Chem. Soc., we describe new methodology to carry out directed, borylative 1,2-difunctionalization of alkenes with various carbon/nitrogen nucleophiles and B₂pin₂ as the reaction partners. Notably, the reaction works with substrates containing an alkene that is distal from the directing group via a 6-membered palladacycle intermediate. Congrats to the authors, Zhen, Hui-Qi, and May! And special props to undergrad co-authors Hui-Qui and May! Click here for a link to the paper.

(not pictured: Hui-Qi)

The Engle lab bids adieu to Pusu and Elaine with a Friday night bowling extravaganza at nearby Mira Mesa Lanes. Pusu and Elaine return to Nankai University after 6 months of super-productive research in the Engle lab with many new friends, countless memories, and a myriad of great experiences in- and outside of the lab. We’ll miss both of you greatly, but we know that you’ll go on to accomplish great things during graduate school at SIOC (Pusu) and Peking University (Elaine)!

The Engle lab’s first publication on ChemRxiv, the chemistry preprint server, is now online. This new publication describes a convenient reaction for installing two differentiated alkyl groups to a non-conjugated alkene. Congrats to the authors, Joe, Vincent, Van, and Mingyu! We look forward to feedback, suggestions, and comments from the community while the manuscript is under review. Click here for a link to the preprint.

Rohan Marsters joins the Engle Lab for a month-long internship as part of the High Tech High Internship Program. Rohan was quick to get his (gloved) hands dirty with compound purification by column chromatography. You can follow Rohan as he blogs about his experiences in the Engle lab at TSRI here.