董廣彬教授榮獲2026年楊森有機合成創造力獎

導讀

據北大化學報道，北京大學化學與分子工程學院1999級本科校友、美國芝加哥大學董廣彬教授榮獲“2026年Janssen Prize for Creativity in Organic Synthesis”（楊森有機合成創造力獎）。

"It is a tremendous honor to receive the Janssen Prize for Creativity in Organic Synthesis. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Paul Janssen and Johnson & Johnson for their remarkable contributions to human health and for their support of the synthetic chemistry community. Looking ahead, I am particularly excited about two directions of our field: the discovery of mechanistically novel transformations and the advancement of automated organic synthesis."

Prof. Guangbin Dong

Professor of Chemistry
University of Chicago, USA

Prof. Dong’s is well known internationally for his outstanding research and has contributed to a broad range of research fields including activation of inert Carbon-Carbon and Caron-Hydrogen bonds, total synthesis of bioactive natural products, development of novel boron chemistry methods, and syntheses of specific graphene nanoribbons.

He has made groundbreaking contributions in carbon-carbon bond-cleaving reactions, also known as “C-C activation” reactions. While C-H activation processes are quite common, C-C activation processes have mostly been restricted to strained systems or specialized applications. His first seminal paper on this topic (Nature 2016, 546) reports the highly innovative conversion of β-aryl cyclopentones into fused cyclohexanones. A second landmark paper (Nature 2019, 373) outlines a brilliantly conceived method for the removal of an acetyl group from methyl ketones. This transformation provides a unique and powerful method for the late-stage defunctionalization of complex pharmaceuticals or natural products.

Guangbin Dong’s seminal studies on C–C activation have greatly promoted the field of skeletal editing or skeletal modification. Already in 2012 his team demonstrated a novel “cut and sew” approach that enables the efficient construction of bridged and fused rings through activation of a C–C single bond. More recently, Prof. Dong achieved a “hook-and-slide” approach for tunable homologation of simple tertiary amides and carboxylic acids (Science, 2023, 382, 951).

A second area of significant contributions by Prof. Dong is in the alkylation of the α-position of ketones. His group developed a “green” approach for ketone alkylation using unactivated olefins. Prof. Dong’s lab developed a bifunctional catalyst that can couple a simple ketone directly to a normal olefin in a byproduct-free fashion (Science 2014, 345, 68). Given the prevalence of ketones and olefins, the coupling approach has the potential to significantly streamline the synthesis of complex targets and further advance sustainable approaches in organic synthesis.

An exciting recent development reported by Prof. Dong involves boron insertion chemistry. In an exceptional paper published in Science (2021, 175), he reports on the Ni-catalyzed insertion of boron reagents into unactivated aliphatic C- O bonds. Given that the boron-insertion products formed can be readily converted into pharmaceutically interesting structures, this method allows convenient late-stage modification of ether-containing complex molecules.

Prof. Dong has also been a leading contributor in the palladium/norbornene catalysis, also known as Catellani-type reactions. His work has opened many new directions beyond the conventional Catellani reactions and enables highly site-selective arene multi-functionalizations and carbonyl transpositions.

Guangbin Dong's biography :

Guangbin Dong received his B.S. degree from Peking University. During his graduate studies as a Larry Yung Stanford Graduate fellow at Stanford University with Prof. Barry M. Trost, he completed the total syntheses of three complex natural products and developed several new catalytic enantioselective synthetic methods, resulting in 16 publications. After obtaining his Ph.D. degree in chemistry in 2009 he joined the group of Professor Robert H. Grubbs at California Institute of Technology as a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Environmental Chemistry Fellow. In 2011, he joined the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin as an assistant professor and a CPRIT Scholar. In 2016, Guangbin Dong became a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Chicago. Since 2023, he has been the first chair of the Weldon G. Brown Professorship.

About the prize

The Janssen Prize for Creativity in Organic Synthesis was established in 1986 by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, members of the academic chemistry community and the Belgian Organic Synthesis Symposium (BOSS) to bring attention to the positive impact of organic synthesis in drug discovery.

• This prestigious recognition is awarded every two years to a chemist, under the age of 50, who has made a significant contribution to the field of organic synthesis

• Nominations are submitted by the global academic community of organic chemists

• A panel of international jury members, chaired by Prof. B. Feringa, 2016 Nobel Prize winner, select the winner.

• The recipient receives 20.000 Euros, a trophy, a plaque and delivers a keynote address at BOSS.

來源：北大化學、Janssen Prize