Professor John Porco Receives Bristol-Myers Squibb Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry
Professor John A. Porco, Jr. has received the distinguished 2003 Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry. The grant provides a total of $300,000 of unrestricted research support over a three-year period and is one of only two given by BMS worldwide each year to support the academic research community.
The award acknowledges the outstanding record of achievement of Professor Porco and his research team in the field of synthetic organic chemistry. Synthetic organic chemistry has long been a critical tool in the drug discovery efforts of pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology firms. Research in the Porco laboratory focuses on the development of new synthetic methodology for the efficient chemical synthesis of complex molecules and the utilization of parallel (or combinatorial) synthesis techniques towards the synthesis of complex chemical libraries.
Recent total synthesis accomplishments include the synthesis of the salicylate enamide natural products lobatamide C and oximidine II, and the epoxyquinoid natural products torreyanic acid, epoxyquinol A, and panepophenanthrin. The Porco team recently employed parallel synthesis approaches to prepare complex spiroketal libraries and highly functional angular structures from epoxyquinol dienes. Professor Porco is the Director of the new Center for Chemical Methodology and Library Development at Boston University (CMLD-BU).