Our group is interested in the natural product MPC1001. This natural product was reported to be extremely potent (GI50 = 9.3 nM against prostate cancer cell lines).
Retrosynthetically, the natural product can be disconnected into an oxepine, a diketopiperazine, and a biaryl (violaceic acid) fragment. We have found and developed methods to access both the violaceic acid and diketopiperazine fragments. Current efforts are dedicated to the synthesis of the oxepine fragment, and the piecing of these fragments into the natural product.
Representative Publications
Ando, S., Burrows, J., Koide, K. Org. Lett. 2017, 19, 1116-1119
Ando, S., Grote, A.L. & Koide, K. J. Org. Chem. 2011, 76, 1155–1158.