César de la Fuente is a Presidential Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he leads the Machine Biology Group. Previously, he pursued postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and earned a PhD at the University of British Columbia (UBC). His research goal is to use the power of machines to accelerate discoveries in biology and medicine.
Synthetic chemistry has delivered world-changing molecules by employing a common philosophical approach wherein a “lead” molecule is optimized for its function through iterative changes to its structure. The tedious resynthesis of analogs along the series of candidate leads, however, is out of step with the intellectual roots driving this process.
-Porous framework materials, including metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), are highly tunable materials with myriad potential applications ranging from chemical separations to gas storage to catalysis. This is due to the unusual local environment offered by their pores. Herein we will discuss how this tunability can be used to unlock new reactive species relevant to organic synthesis and catalysis, focusing on fluorination chemistry, which is critical to the pharmaceutical, polymer, and agrochemical industries.
