Yesterday was Occidental’s Summer Research Conference, hosted by our Undergraduate research center. It was a fun day to share our science with our friends and colleagues. Congratulations to all the Cannon Lab students who presented posters or gave talks!

Our work on the photoredox-catalyzed oxidation of anions to generate electrophilic radicals is published in The Journal of Organic Chemistry! This work generates 1,3-dicarbonyl and amidyl radicals by a stepwise proton-coupled electron transfer process for the functionalization of alkenes. The result is a highly atom-economical process for hydro-, amido-, and dialkylation of alkenes. We used experimental and computational mechanistic experiments to understand the role of the catalyst as an electron shuttle between starting material and product molecules.

After over a year of lab closures and limited access, the Cannon Lab is back at wet chemistry! We’re very excited to be back to making carbon-carbon bonds!

Our research in photoredox catalysis has been funded by a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Science of the National Institutes of Health! The funds from this grant will support a number of research students and any supplies they need to conduct their research. The reactions studied under this grant will enable the use of visible light to conduct challenging carbon-carbon bond forming reactions.

The chemistry department was just awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to purchase a new nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer! Thanks to Prof. Cannon as well as Profs. Despagnet-Ayoub, Hill, Navarro, and Udit for putting together a successful proposal. The features of this new instrument will advance our research and also allow us to include more hands-on NMR experience in the teaching lab.

This summer was a challenging one for our group because we weren’t able to conduct laboratory research. However, we were able to initiate some computational research projects and keep the group together during the pandemic.

Check out our work from the summer at Oxy’s URC Summer Research Conference webpage!

The Cannon Lab is one of the recipients of a 2020 grant for research at principally undergraduate institutions from the journal Organic Syntheses! The grant provides a stipend and money for supplies for a student to conduct research over the summer in our lab. Many thanks to Organic Syntheses for selecting us for this award!

Our work on the total syntheses of the alkaloid natural products (–)-coniine, DAB-1, and nectrisine just appeared in ACS Omega! This was collaborative work with Prof. Deardorff to develop a robust synthesis of these biologically active natural products. The approach utilizes an enzyme-catalyzed hydrocyanation to establish the key stereochemistry, which is followed by transition metal-catalyzed reactions to transform this building block into the natural products. We envision this approach as a general platform for the enantioselective syntheses of alkaloid natural products. Congrats to the undergraduates that worked on this project together!

The Undergraduate Research Center is celebrating 20 years of supporting our students. Our own Prof. Cannon and Marc Kawada are featured in this video celebrating its success.

Check out Molly’s “My Oxy Story” currently featured on Oxy’s new students page! We’re very proud she was able to make the most of the opportunity to do research with us at Oxy.