Faculty

Valery Fokin 
Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry
TSRI - 1998

Education 
Ph.D., University of Southern California, 1998

Research Focus 
New Reactivity, Catalysis, Organic Synthesis, and Macromolecules


Our research program aims to discover new reactivity and to develop its practical applications in organic synthesis, chemical biology, and materials science. Transformations catalyzed by transition metals are of particular importance, for they often offer many variables for optimization to make them useful on both laboratory and industrial scales. While we often use automation techniques to screen extensive sets of catalysts, ligands, and conditions (often based on just a hunch that "it should work"), mechanistic studies of the initial reactivity glimpses hold a prominent place in our research. Analysis of reaction kinetics, in situ IR monitoring, microcalorimetry, and other physico-chemical methods are routinely used to understand the mechanistic underpinning of the processes under investigation. Our multidisciplinary studies resulted in a number of ongoing collaborative projects with chemists, biologists, and materials scientists at TSRI and beyond its walls.

Selected References 
Wu, P., Fokin, V.V. Catalytic Azide-Alkyne Cycloadditions: Reactivity and Applications. Aldrichimica Acta 40:7, 2007

Cassidy, M.P., Raushel, J., Fokin, V.V. Practical synthesis of amides from in situ generated copper(I) acetylides and sulfonyl azides. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 45:3154, 2006.

Whiting, M., Fokin, V.V. Copper-catalyzed reaction cascade: direct conversion of alkynes to N-sulfonylazetidin-2-imines. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 45:3157, 2006.

Whiting, M., Tripp, J., Lin, Y.-C., Lindstrom, W., Olson, A. J., Elder, J. H., Sharpless, K. B., Fokin, V. V. Rapid Discovery and Structure-Activity Profiling of Novel Inhibitors of HIV-1 Protease Enabled by the Copper(I)-Catalyzed Synthesis of 1,2,3-Triazoles and Their Further Functionalization. J. Med. Chem. 49:7697, 2006.