On December 11th, mini symposium
on the total synthesis of natural products: series of academic activities for commemorating
the 120thanniversary of the nirth of Shixian Yang convened in the
Academic Lecture Hall of the Synthesis Building of the Institute of
Elemento-organic Chemistry. Jointly sponsored by 2011 Collaborative Innovation
Center and the SKLEOC, this symposium invited seven domestic speakers.
Professor Guangxin Liang hosted the opening ceremony of the symposium. Kai Qu,
secretary of the party committee of the school of chemistry, delivered opening remarks
on behalf of the school of chemistry, and extended his gratitude to all invited
speakers.
As a specially invited guest, Wenping Liang, former executive deputy
director of the Department of Chemical Sciences of National Natural Science
Foundation of China, made a speech on behalf of invited speakers. Liang
reviewed Prof. Shixian Yang’s far-reaching influence on China’s pesticide
chemistry, Nankai University, and Nankai University’s chemistry as a scientist
and educationist. He encouraged faculties and students of the school to inherit
the spirit of Prof. Yang to make further contributions to China’s chemical
research.
Seven invited speakers prepared a wonderful set of lectures for this
symposium. Prof. Zhujun Yao of Nanjing University expounded his research
group’s systematic and in-depth studies on the total synthesis of chlorofusin
in the past decade, fully demonstrating the application of synthetic organic
chemistry in medicinal chemistry and new reaction discoveries.
Prof. Lei Liu of Tsinghua University showcased his group’s frontier
achievements in the chemical synthesis of proteins, which exemplified the value
of synthetic chemistry in the studies of life systems.
Professor Hongbin Zhai of Peking University made a report titled “total synthesis
of several polycyclic natural products”. He systematically and profoundly
narrated his research group’s strategies and considerations in the construction
of polycyclic natural products, which was very thought-provoking.
Professor Yingjin Yuan of Tianjin University gave a lecture on “chemical
regeneration of artificial cell factories”. This talk discussed complex molecule
synthesis from the perspective of synthetic biology, which was quite inspiring.
In his talk, Prof. Liuzhu Gong of the University of Science and
Technology of China introduced catalytic asymmetric reactions developed in his
group, and the application of these reactions in the high-efficient syntheses
of several complex alkaloids.
Report made by Prof. Xiaoguang Lei of Peking University fully displayed
his research group’s characteristics in complex natural product synthesis and
interdisciplinary research of chemistry and biology. Natural product synthesis
served as a starting point in his research, further spanning to the field of target
recognition and functional molecular probes.
The
symposium concludes with a talk by Prof. Weidong Li of Chongqing University. He
introduced his group's work on the total synthesis of several alkaloids with
important bioactivity.
This mini symposium promoted great discussion between the speakers and
the audience. In the wake of each report, there was sufficient exchange and
collision of ideas. Attendees of the conference showed great expectations to participating
in similar academic symposiums in the future.
