Prof Jianwei SUN has been awarded over HK$6M from the Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) to develop new chiral catalysts for asymmetric synthesis. This is the only project funded for fundamental chemistry research in this round of exercise
Prof Jianwei Sun, Professor of Chemistry, has recently been awarded over HK$6M from the Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) to carry out research on “Development of a New Generation of Privileged Chiral Catalysts for Asymmetric Synthesis”.
The performance of chiral catalysts is key to practical catalytic asymmetric synthesis, an important tool in the production of chiral drugs. However, generally useful (“privileged”) and cheap chiral catalysts that are broadly applicable to different reactions are limitedly available and challenging to develop. In this project, Prof Sun and his team (Prof. Zhenyang Lin in CHEM/HKUST, Prof. Pauline Chiu in CHEM/HKU, and Prof. Xumu Zhang in CHEM/SUSTech) aim to develop a new generation of privileged chiral catalysts that are not only easily accessible, but also expected to have high performance in asymmetric synthesis. These catalysts have great potential to improve the synthesis of chiral pharmaceuticals. This project will be joint efforts of four research laboratories with complementary expertise in organocatalysis, metal catalysis, computation, and industrial synthesis.
Administered by the Research Grants Council (RGC), the Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) aims at encouraging research groups in UGC-funded universities to engage in collaborative research across disciplines and across universities with a view to enhancing the research output of universities in terms of the level of attainment, quantity, dimensions and speed. CRF is one of the most competitive research grants in Hong Kong. In this round of exercise, Prof. Sun’s project (C6012-21GF) is the only one funded for fundamental chemical research.
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