New funding will help research into development of new medicines Professor Andy Lawrence and his group have been awarded a Leverhulme Trust Research Grant of £293,670 for work on “Biomimetic [1,2]-shifts in the synthesis of complex diterpenes”. The project will investigate the chemical synthesis of biologically active molecules that occur in the natural world. These molecules have important uses – the majority of modern medicines, including many antibiotics and anticancer drugs, are directly or indirectly derived from natural products. The ability to make these natural products efficiently and sustainably in the lab is a crucial step required to facilitate their use for the investigation and treatment of diseases. The Lawrence group’s ‘biomimetic’ approach aims to emulate how the producing organisms (e.g., plants, animals, bacteria and fungi) construct these natural products. This new project will result in the chemical synthesis of diterpene structures, an important class of natural products, following a biomimetic approach. This project is at the forefront of a new age of natural product synthesis, which aims to achieve truly efficient and sustainable syntheses for practical applications. We are delighted to receive this funding from the Leverhulme Trust for our fundamental synthetic organic chemistry research. This will enable us to undertake long-term, high-risk, high-reward, target-orientated projects. Through this work we hope to develop short and efficient syntheses of some of the most structurally complex molecules ever isolated from living organisms. Professor Andy Lawrence This article was published on 2024-03-13
