Professor Steve Ley CBE FRS FMedSci | Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry

Director of Research

In the Ley Group, we specialise in developing new synthesis methods and applying them to the construction of biologically important molecules. Over the years we have completed the total synthesis of many natural products, including: spongistatin 1 (anti-mitotic agent); rapamycin (immunosuppressant); thapsigargin (SERCA pumps inhibitor); azadirachtin (insect antifeedant); and bengazole A (fungicide). In addition to our research on natural product synthesis, we also pioneered flow chemistry and machine assisted synthesis.

For more detailed research information and our publication list, please see our legacy group website.

Completed Natural Products

Publications

Exploring the chemical space of phenyl sulfide oxidation by automated optimization

P Mueller, A Vriza, AD Clayton, OS May, N Govan, S Notman, SV Ley, TW Chamberlain, RA Bourne

Reaction Chemistry and Engineering

(2023)

8

538

(doi: 10.1039/d2re00552b)

Multicomponent Direct Assembly of N-Heterospirocycles Facilitated by Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalysis.

OM Griffiths, SV Ley

The Journal of Organic Chemistry

(2022)

87

13204

(doi: 10.1021/acs.joc.2c01684)

Automated multi-objective reaction optimisation: which algorithm should I use?

P Müller, AD Clayton, J Manson, S Riley, OS May, N Govan, S Notman, SV Ley, TW Chamberlain, RA Bourne

Reaction Chemistry and Engineering

(2022)

7

987

(doi: 10.1039/d1re00549a)

11 Outlook, future directions, and emerging applications

SV Ley, OS May, OM Griffiths, K Sowa

(2021)

313

(doi: 10.1515/9783110693690-011)

Flow chemistry - Fundamentals: Second edition

F Darvas, G Dormán, V Hessel, SV Ley

(2021)

1

1

(doi: 10.1515/9783110693676)

Flow Chemistry – Applications

F Darvas, G Dormán, V Hessel, SV Ley

(2021)

1

(doi: 10.1515/9783110693690)

Photoredox-Catalyzed Dehydrogenative Csp3-Csp2 Cross-Coupling of Alkylarenes to Aldehydes in Flow.

OM Griffiths, HA Esteves, Y Chen, K Sowa, OS May, P Morse, DC Blakemore, SV Ley

J Org Chem

(2021)

86

13559

(doi: 10.1021/acs.joc.1c01621)

Formation and utility of reactive ketene intermediates under continuous flow conditions

HR Smallman, JA Leitch, T McBride, SV Ley, DL Browne

Tetrahedron

(2021)

93

132305

(doi: 10.1016/j.tet.2021.132305)

CLICK-enabled analogues reveal pregnenolone interactomes in cancer and immune cells

S Roy, J Sipthorp, B Mahata, J Pramanik, ML Hennrich, A-C Gavin, SV Ley, SA Teichmann

Iscience

(2021)

24

102485

(doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102485)

A Comment on Continuous Flow Technologies within the Agrochemical Industry

SV Ley, Y Chen, A Robinson, B Otter, E Godineau, C Battilocchio

Organic Process Research & Development

(2021)

25

713

(doi: 10.1021/acs.oprd.0c00534)