Organic Synthesis Chemistry / Medical Chemistry

Organic chemistry is the subdiscipline of chemistry that deals with the structures, properties, and reactions of carbonaceous compounds. A central objective of research is to produce new compounds with novel properties, evaluate these, and gradually optimize them to achieve tailored characteristics. New synthesis methods must often be developed for this purpose. Organic chemistry can be broken down into further subdisciplines according to the field of application—for instance, natural product research, drug design, materials research, catalysis, organic analysis, etc.

The Institute of Organic Chemistry at Universität Hamburg looks back on a long and productive history in the fields of carbohydrate and natural product research, which is continued to this day. Embedded in various on-site activities, the current research in organic chemistry focuses on various new approaches to anti-infective therapy. The focus is on antiviral nucleotide analogues and the development of innovative and effective lipophilic prodrug approaches, the design of new enzyme inhibitors, and the synthesis and evaluation of new classes of antibiotics based on natural products. The methods used include modern synthesis chemistry, methods for investigating biological activity, the evaluation of molecular action mechanisms using state-of-the-art nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques and other analytical procedures.

This infection research is complemented by projects to develop new synthesis methods with a focus on asymmetric transition metal catalysis, organophosphate chemistry, photochemistry, and photoredox catalysis. This work aims to efficiently develop potential active ingredients and substructures of biologically active compounds (in part using a cascade approach) by using novel synthesis methods to simplify or even enable access to certain classes of compounds.