Yoon Group

It's been a fun time running the group twitter and now the bluesky! - Yoon lab PhD #27 @ellieplachinski.bsky.social

Congratulations to Yoon Lab PhD #26, Dr. Tahoe Fiala!

Photocatalytic furan-to-pyrrole conversion The identity of a heteroatom within an aromatic ring influences the chemical properties of that heterocyclic compound. Systematically evaluating the effect of a single atom, however, poses synthetic c...

Two other papers that garnered a lot of discussion in our PoY process were the Park group's report on photocatalytic furan to pyrrole conversion (doi.org/10.1126/science.adq6245) and the Phipps group's report on enantioselective HAA to epimerize of meso diols (doi.org/10.1126/science.adq8029)

Catalysis of an SN2 pathway by geometric preorganization - Nature A small-molecule (646 Da) hydrogen-bond-donor catalyst accelerates the SN2 step of an enantioselective Michaelis–Arbuzov reaction by recapitulating the geometric preorganization principle used by enzy...

Our two other finalists were the Jacobson group's catalysis of an Sn2 by geometric preorganization (doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07811-4) (the mod's personal favorite) and the Reisman/Peters groups' report on catalytic Sm (doi.org/10.1126/science.adp5777)

Alcohol-alcohol cross-coupling enabled by SH2 radical sorting Combining nickel and photoredox catalysis with carbene activation can form carbon-carbon bonds between two alcohols.

On Monday we held our annual paper of the year group meeting, and the group has selected the Macmillan group's alcohol-alcohol cross coupling enabled by SH2 radical sorting as our favorite paper of 2024! (doi.org/10.1126/science.adl5890)

Really excited to see this amazing work out in ChemRxiv from our #ChemCollab between the @uwyoongroup.bsky.social @tehshik.bsky.social and #PfizerChemistry
Photochem-mediated oxygen migration into sp3 bonds delivering small ring ethers as well as an OH - methylene transposition
#ChemSky 1/

oxygen and nitrogen insertion reactions into saturated carbocycles

Friends, I'm pleased to draw your attention to two new preprints today describing complementary heteroatom insertion reactions into saturated carbocycles, one from our group and another from the Knowles laboratory.

chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...
chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

We're thrilled to welcome new first years Jenna Krussman and Maia Carvalho to the group!

Exo-to-endo nitrogen transposition in saturated rings

Authors: Danny Thach, Robert Knowles
DOI: 10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-nlj7m

Exo-to-endo nitrogen transposition in saturated rings Biologically active molecules are often comprised of ring structures that precisely position functional groups to enable target-specific interactions. The iterative permutation of these structural arr...

also see this great exo-to-endo nitrogen transposition in saturated rings by the Knowles lab! chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

Oxygen Migration into Carbon–Carbon Single Bonds by Photochemical Oxidation The editing of organic molecules through single-atom modifications is an enabling capability for medicinal chemistry. While several examples of single-atom insertions into the carbon–carbon double bon...

Up today on the Rxiv! Cade, Caitlin, Matt, Felix, Desiree, and Scott utilize photochemical oxidation for oxygen migration into C–C single bonds chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

Oxygen Migration into Carbon–Carbon Single Bonds by Photochemical Oxidation

Authors: Cade MacAllister, Caitlin Lacker, Matthieu Maciejewski, Felix Wessels, Desiree Bates, Scott Bagley, Tehshik Yoon
DOI: 10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-ssx6g

wow these phasers look great!

My group would like you to know we're doing new lab photos.

lab social media admin just remembered that we have a bluesky... we will be updating from here on new papers and happenings in the lab going forward!

Happy holidays from our lab to yours!

We're thrilled to welcome new first year students Omar Solis, Taylor Stephens, and Zoe Qian to the Yoon Group!

Highly Enantioselective 6π Photoelectrocyclizations Engineered by Hydrogen-Bonding Excited-state photoreactions play a pivotal role in organic chemistry. Electrocyclization reactions, in particular, are valued both for their ability to produce structurally complex molecules and thei...

Check out our latest preprint, now up on the Rxiv! We've developed a highly enantioselective 6π photoelectrocyclization enabled by hydrogen-bonding between a chiral Ir photocatalyst and substrate. Link below: 👇
chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

hello! We're on bsky now. Follow for updates on the happenings in the Yoon lab at UW–Madison!

Howdy! Please follow my group @uwyoongroup.bsky.social, which I've been dragging around from platform to platform so we can abandon The Bad Place.