Professor Michael J. Krische and coworkers have developed a ruthenium catalyst that enables insertion of saturated C-H bonds of adjacent diol carbon atoms into C-C σ-bonds to form products of cycloaddition. These processes merge C-H and C-C bond activation, enabling convergent assembly of structural motifs evident in type II polyketides, broadening access to this medicinally important compound class.
This work will soon appear in the journal Science (Science 2017, DOI 10.1126/science.aao0453).