Justin Mohr

Research in our group involves several areas of synthetic organic chemistry, including transition metal catalysis and natural product synthesis. We are particularly interested in developing new bond-forming reactions that solve specific problems en route to biologically active target molecules and ultimately improve synthetic efficiency. Furthermore, novel transformations discovered during synthetic efforts are uniquely poised for systematic explorations of chemical space around privileged core structures in collaboration with chemical biology laboratories. These synthetic strategies are useful for the development of pharmacologically active compounds with improved activity, selectivity, or physical properties relative to the lead natural product compounds.

Members of our group will gain experience with a wide variety of chemical transformations and synthetic techniques. In addition, co-workers will learn to develop new reactions and design efficient multi-step synthetic routes to target molecules.

1. Zuhl, A. M.; Mohr, J. T.; Bachovchin, D. A.; Niessen, S.; Hsu, K.-L.; Berlin, J. M.; Dochnahl, M.; López-Alberca, M. P.; Fu, G. C.; Cravatt, B. F. “Competitive Activity-Based Protein Profiling Identifies Aza-β-Lactams as a Versatile Chemotype for Serine Hydrolase Inhibition” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 5068–5071.
2. Behenna, D. C.; Mohr, J. T.; Sherden, N. H.; Marinescu, S. C.; Harned, A. M.; Tani, K.; Seto, M.; Ma, S.; Novák, Z.; Krout, M. R.; McFadden, R. M.; Roizen, J. L.; Enquist, Jr., J. A.; White, D. E.; Levine, S. R.; Petrova, K. V.; Iwashita, A.; Virgil, S. C.; Stoltz, B. M. “Enantioselective Decarboxylative Alkylation Reactions: Catalyst Development, Substrate Scope, and Mechanistic Studies” Chem.–Eur. J. 2011, 17, 14199–14223.
3. Bachovchin, D. A.; Mohr, J. T.; Speers, A. E.; Wang, C.; Berlin, J. M.; Spicer, T. P.; Fernandez-Vega, V.; Chase, P.; Hodder, P. S.; Schürer, S. C.; Nomura, D. K.; Rosen, H.; Fu, G. C.; Cravatt, B. F. “Academic Cross-fertilization by Public Screening Yields a Remarkable Class of Protein Phosphatase Methylesterase-1 Inhibitors” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2011, 108, 6811–6816.
4. Mohr, J. T.; Nishimata, T.; Behenna, D. C.; Stoltz, B. M. “Catalytic Enantioselective Decarboxylative Protonation” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 11348–11349.
5. Mohr, J. T.; Behenna, D. C.; Harned, A. M.; Stoltz, B. M. “Deracemization of Quaternary Carbon Stereocenters by Pd-Catalyzed
   Enantioconvergent Decarboxylative Allylation of Racemic β-Ketoesters” Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2005, 44, 6924–6927.

A.B. (Honors, cum laude), Dartmouth College (Advisor: Gordon Gribble, 1999–2003)
Ph.D., California Institute of Technology (Advisor: Brian Stoltz, 2003–2009)
NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Advisor: Gregory Fu, 2009–2012)