Socrates B. Munoz

Research Themes:

• Drug Design, Biomolecular Processes, and Biosensing
• Functional Materials, Catalysis, and Nanochemistry
• Energy, Environment, Agriculture, and Sustainability

Research Overview:

1. Synthesis – Catalysis – New Reactions and Methodology
2. Cross-coupling – Organometallics – Organofluorine Compounds – Green Chemistry

Or research revolves around the intersection of synthetic organic, organometallic chemistry and catalysis.

Our main research areas are: (i) Organofluorine Chemistry, (ii) Utilization of carboxylic acids as abundant chemical feedstocks in cross-coupling reactions and catalysis (iii) Utilization of sulfur dioxide (SO2) or chemical surrogates in organometallic catalysis and synthesis.

Our main research areas are:

1. Organofluorine Chemistry: New Reactions and Reagents
2. Utilization of carboxylic acids as abundant chemical feedstocks in catalytic synthetic transformations
3. Utilization of sulfur dioxide (SO2) or chemical surrogates in organometallic catalysis and synthesis

Research in my laboratory focuses on the development of new synthetic routes to fluorinated molecules with potential therapeutic applications that could otherwise be difficult to access. In addition, the fluorination and fluoroalkylation methods developed in my laboratory could be extended to the synthesis of 18F radiotracers, widely used in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) for imaging in oncology. Our research will help develop small libraries of novel compounds that can be screened for biological activity important to cancer.

Keywords: Chemistry – Development of new synthetic routes for the preparation of organofluorine and sulfur-containing compounds for therapeutic applications including cancer therapy