(M/F) PhD in organic synthesis

The PhD thesis will be realized within the unit "Molecular, Macromolecular chemistry and Materials" (C3M, UMR7167) at the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris (ESPCI Paris-PSL). ESPCI Paris is a prestigious engineer school (French "grandes écoles") combining high-level research, innovation and multidisciplinary education.
The C3M unit is organized in three research teams focusing respectively on molecular chemistry, the synthesis and characterization of macromolecules, and formulation physico-chemistry.
The PhD student will be intergrated into the Molecular Chemistry and Catalysis team. The main research areas of this team cover metal catalysis, photocatalysis, photochemistry and the synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant molecules.
The PhD student will be supervised by Christophe Meyer, Research Director at the CNRS, whose research interests focus on the development of transition metal-catalyzed reactions, the synthesis and the reactivity of strained carbocycles and heterocycles in order to access scaffolds of potential interest in medicinal chemistry or agrochemistry.
The PhD subject lies in the framework of a collaboration with the Catalysis, Synthesis of Biomolecules and Sustainable Development team of the i-CLeHS reseach unit at ChimieParisTech-PSL.
The PhD student will be affiliated to the Doctoral school of Molecular Chemistry "Ecole Doctorale de Chimie Moléculaire de Paris Centre (ED406)". The thematics of this doctoral school revolve around molecular chemistry including organic synthesis, catalysis, sustainable chemistry and photocatalysis.

Three- and four-membered carbocycles and heterocycles are attracting an increasing interest in medicinal chemistry. Their restricted conformation allows for a well-defined orientation of the substituents in space thereby resulting in improved affinities and selectivities toward the biological targets. Additionally, strained carbo- and heterocycles are also often used to modulate the pharmacokinetic properties. In this context, the objective of the PhD thesis is to develop transition metal-catalyzed asymmetric transfer hydrogenation reactions of new classes of substrates in order to efficiently access diversely substituted cyclopropanes, cyclobutanes, oxetanes and azetidines, incorporating several stereocenters, which are valuable building blocks in organic synthesis. The experimental conditions of the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation reactions will be optimized for the different classes of unsaturated substrates with the goal of obtaining the resulting strained carbocycles and heterocycles with high enantioselectivities and diastereoselectivities. The substrate scope and post-functionalization reactions will be investigated to highlight the interest of the developed methods.