Organic chemistry is one of the cornerstones of today’s science and technology. The Yu group at Peking University is devoted to use both computational chemistry and organic synthesis to advance organic chemistry in the following four areas: 1, Developing theories and understanding reaction mechanisms; 2. Developing new reactions and catalysts; 3, Synthesizing natural products and pharmaceutical molecules; 4, Developing new drugs and studying chemical biology. The students in the Yu group will be trained in both computational chemistry and synthetic organic chemistry, together with some biochemistry techniques from our collaborators.
 

1. Developing theories and understanding reaction mechanisms

           We are interested in studying mechanisms of new and important reactions. These studies will help chemists understand how these reactions take place. On the other hand, our in-depth understandings of the reaction mechanisms may help chemists optimize the reaction conditions of these investigated reactions and related ones, and provide guidance for chemists in their design of new reactions and catalysts. In mechanistic studies, we are using computational chemistry and/or experimental techniques to explore the potential energy surface of every studied reaction as well as to see the 3D structures of reactants, intermediates, products, and transition states.

2. Developing new reactions and catalysts

          We are interested in designing, discovering, and developing new reactions and catalysts that can become tools for synthetic chemist to reach ideal and green synthesis and to develop new medicines. In this research area, we will design new reactions and catalysts based on our deep thinking of reaction mechanisms, together with the aid of computational chemistry, artificial intelligence.

3. Synthesizing natural products and pharmaceutical molecules

         We are passionate to apply the designed and discovered reactions in our lab to address the challenges in total syntheses of natural and pharmaceutical molecules. These researches will also form a platform to demonstrate the impacts of our developed reactions in organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry.

4. Developing new drugs and studying chemical biology

         We are interested in applying our reactions to synthesize drug-like molecules and then investigating the biological and medicinal activities of these molecules for drug discovery. Also we will collaborate with biologists to understand the biology of our synthesized molecules and natural products.