ZHU Ye

ZHU Ye

Assistant Professor

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Research

ORCID: 0000-0002-8566-576X
ResearcherID: C-4610-2014

 

Research Interests

Chemical synthesis of biologically relevant molecules remains the rate-limiting step in drug discovery and development despite the tremendous progress that has been made in academia and industry. Our research focuses on inventing and developing enabling chemical tools to address significant synthetic challenges facing biomedical sciences and pharmaceutical industry, thus accelerating creation of potential new medicines. To achieve this goal, our effort will be directed towards:

• Innovating catalytic reactions that are compatible with molecules containing unprotected polar groups and heterocycles;
• Designing and developing novel reagents for late-stage functionalization of complex synthetic molecules and natural products;
• Discovering chemical transformations that are broadly applicable to complex biomolecules under physiological conditions.

 

Research Highlight

 

Teaching Contributions  AY2024/2025

• CM3121 Advanced Organic Chemistry
• CM5224 Emerging Concepts in Drug Discovery

 

Representative Publications  

• Liu, C.; Yang, Y.; Hong, W.; Ma, J.-A.; Zhu, Y. Ion Hydration Enables Generality in Asymmetric Catalysis: Desymmetrization to P-Stereogenic Triarylphosphine Derivatives. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. DOI: 10.1002/anie.202417827.
• Li, M.; Ho, C. K. S.; On, I. K. W.; Gandon, V.; Zhu, Y. Inherently Chiral Resorcinarene Cavitands through Ionic Catalyst-Controlled Cross-Coupling. Chem 2024, 10, 3323–3341.
• Wei, J.; Gandon, V.; Zhu, Y. Amino Acid-Derived Ionic Chiral Catalysts Enable Desymmetrizing Cross-Coupling to Remote Acyclic Quaternary Stereocenters. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 16796–16811.
• On, I. K. W.; Hong, W.; Zhu, Y. Crossing the Ortho-Hurdle: Ionic Stereocontrol Enables Atroposelective Suzuki−Miyaura Coupling. Chem. Catalysis 2023, 3, 100523.
• Hai, X.; Zheng, Y.; Yu, Q.; Guo, N.; Xi, S.; Zhao, X.; Mitchell, S.; Luo, X.; Tulus, V.; Wang, M.; Sheng, X.; Ren, L.; Long, X.; Li, J.; He, P.; Lin, H.; Cui, Y.; Peng, X.; Shi, J.; Wu, J.; Zhang, C.; Zou, R.; Guillén-Gosálbez, G.; Pérez-Ramírez, J.; Koh, M. J.; Zhu, Y.; Li, J.; Lu, J. Geminal-Atom Catalysis for Cross-Coupling. Nature 2023, 622, 754–760.
• Li, M.; Chia, X. L.; Tian, C.; Zhu, Y. Mechanically Planar Chiral Rotaxanes through Catalytic Desymmetrization. Chem 2022, 8, 2843–2855.

• Lou, Y.; Wei, J.; Li, M.; Zhu, Y. Distal Ionic Substrate–Catalyst Interactions Enable Long-Range Stereocontrol: Access to Remote Quaternary Stereocenters through a Desymmetrizing Suzuki–Miyaura Reaction. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 123–129.