Andrew G. Myers

Andrew G. Myers' research interests involve the synthesis and study of complex molecules of importance in biology and human medicine. His research group has developed synthetic routes to the natural products dynemicin A, neocarzinostatin chromophore, epoxybasmenone, tunicamycin, saframycin A, terpestacin, the cytochalasins, stephacidin B and the tetracycline antiobiotics, among others. They have conducted studies that helped elucidate the mechanism of action of the "enediyne" natural products neocarzinostatin chromophore, dynemicin A, and calicheamicin. New biradical forming cycloaromatization reactions were discovered, as exemplified by the conversion of (Z)-1,2,4-heptatrien-6-yne to the a,3-dehydrotoluene biradical and the conversion of 1,6-didehydro[10] annulene to 1,5-dehydronaphthalene. The latter study involved the synthesis of the elusive 1,6-dehydro[10] annulene aromatic system and explained its fleeting existence in terms of an exceptionally facile cycloaromatization reaction. In other studies of new and unusual chemical reactivity, a non-catalyzed aldol addition reaction of O-silyl N,O-ketene acetals with aldehydes was reported. As an outgrowth of mechanistic studies, the first observations of the dramatic acceleration of the aldol addition reaction of O-silyl N,O-ketene acetals by the incorporation of the silicon atom within a 4-membered ring were made and extended to the development of non-catalyzed aldol addition reactions of enol silacyclobutane derivatives of ketones and esters. Other new reactions of synthetic utility that have been developed include the stereoselective synthesis of olefins from silylated sulfonyl hydrazones, the synthesis of allenes from propargylic alcohols, a 1,3-reductive transposition of allylic alcohols, a reductive coupling of aldehydes and allylic alcohols, highly efficient methodology for the reductive coupling of aldehyde tosylhydrazones with alkyllithium reagents, a one-step transformation of 2,3-epoxy alcohols into hydroxy carbonates, the development of lithium amidotrihydroborate as a powerful new reductant, transannular free-radical cyclization chemistry, a one-step method for the reductive deoxygenation of unhindered alcohols, methodology for the decarboxylative olefination of arene carboxylic acids, transformations of N-tert-butyldimethylsilylhydrazones, and the use of pseudoephedrine as a practical chiral auxiliary for the preparation of highly enantiomerically enriched ketones, aldehydes, alcohols, organofluorine compounds, carboxylic acids, a-amino acids, and a-amino aldehyde derivatives. Andrew Myers is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. He began his academic career as Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology (1986 - 1991) where he was later Associate Professor (1991 - 1994) and Professor (1994 - 1998). Andrew Myers received the Eli Lilly Grantee Award (1989), the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award (1989), a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship (1990), an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (1990), the ICI Excellence in Chemistry Award (1990), the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (1990), the American Cyanamid Young Faculty Award in Organic Chemistry (1991), Pfizer Research Awards in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (1992 - 1995), the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (1993), the Thieme-IUPAC Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (1998), the ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (2002), and the Novartis Chemistry Lectureship Award (2002). He is the principal scientific founder of Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, and is a consultant for Pfizer Inc.