We are excited to share a project many years in the making. For the first time, we have succeeded in using chiral transient directing groups to enhance reactivity, control regioselectivity, and achieve stereoinduction in an intermolecular reductive Heck hydroarylation of alkenes. This transient directing group strategy obviates the directing group installation and removal steps that are common in directed alkene functionalization, representing a positive step forward in efficiency and sustainability. Congrats to all of the Engle lab authors, Luke, Zi-Qi, Van, and Ruohan, as well as our collaborators Tuğçe and Peng from the Liu lab. For a link to the pre-print, click below:

https://chemrxiv.org/articles/A_Transient_Directing_Group_Strategy_Enables_Enantioselective_Reductive_Heck_Hydroarylation_of_Alkenes/9795338

We are pleased to welcome Raul all the way from Ruben Martin’s group at ICIQ! He will be collaborating with Mingyu on alkynes of fun chemistry!

Our lab had the honor and privilege to contribute to a special issue of the Israel Journal of Chemistry honoring 2019 Wolf Prize Awardees and catalysis legends, Professors Stephen L. Buchwald and John F. Hartwig. In this review, Zhen, Yang, and May teamed up to provide an overview of recent developments in alkene 1,2-carboboration using different transition metal catalysts. This is a fast-moving field, so it’s hard to keep up with all of the exciting developments, but hopefully this review will be a good place to start. For a link to the paper, click here.

In a pre-print appearing online today in ChemRxiv, Van, Zi-Qi, Tim, and Joe describe the first successful integration of allyl electrophiles into nickel-catalyzed conjunctive cross-coupling. Key to the success of this reaction is use of a series of weakly coordinating heterocycle directing groups that allow the alkene moiety of the allyl group to coordinate and promote challenging C(sp³)–C(sp³) reductive elimination, as supported by computational studies in collaboration with the Liu group at the University of Pittsburgh. Click here for a link to the paper.

The Engle Lab took a break from lab work to celebrate the arrival of three new graduate students, the successful PhD defense by Zhen, and everyone’s hard work over the past year. We stuck to tradition and grilled food, played volleyball, and relaxed!

Today, we celebrated Zhen passing his thesis defense with flying colors! It’s been a honor to work with him these past few years and we will be forever grateful for the leadership he showed this lab! He will soon be off to post-doc with Professor Frances Arnold at Caltech!

Congratulations to rising G4 student Van Tran who was chosen to represent Scripps Research and the Engle Lab at the 2019 AbbVie Scholars Symposium! The event takes place this week on Thursday, August 15, at AbbVie’s Corporate Headquarters in North Chicago, Illinois. Way to go, Van!

Rock star high school interns; Nhi, Matt, and Kane, presented posters on their summer internships at the Scripps Research Summer Intern Poster Session! When asked what they learned from the internship, the overwhelming answer from these three amazing junior scientists was “basic lab skills and the ability to persevere in the face of failure”. We couldn’t be prouder to help these incredible students start their careers! We’re excited to see what they do next!

We are super excited to welcome first year graduate students Aaron, Huiqi, and Omar to the Engle lab!

Aaron hails from Florida and worked in polymer chemistry while completing his BS at Florida State. After graduation he interned at BMS discovery before making it to the West Coast just in time for orientation!

Huiqi is a familiar face around here as she completed an 8-week internship with us while she worked on her BS at University of Science at Technology of China! She is no stranger to organometallic catalysis!

Omar is also a former undergraduate student! He completed his undergraduate work at CSUSM and did a SURF internship with us his junior year. After graduation he interned at Johnson and Johnson and has his eyes on #teamnickel!

We are so incredibly lucky to have such amazing people join our lab!

Congrats to rising G3 student Tanner Jankins for successfully passing his qualifying exam and advancing to candidacy! We are super excited to see what new methodology (and metals!) Tanner will develop in our lab – stay tuned for some awesome chemistry coming to a journal near you!