We report a new class of deubiquitinating enzyme (DUB) probes that resemble the native diubiquitin with a same linkage size and contain a Michael addition acceptor for trapping the DUB active-site cysteine. Both K63- and K48-linked diubiquitin probes were generated using a facile chemical ligation method. The diUb probes were demonstrated to label DUBs from different families and revealed intri...

An effective chiral Lewis acid-catalyzed asymmetric Baylis-Hillman reaction is described. Good to high enantioselectivities were obtained using 3 mol % chiral catalyst. Novel camphor-derived dimerized ligands were prepared from the condensation of (+)-ketopinic acid with the corresponding diamines and hydrazine under acidic conditions. When alpha-naphthyl acrylate was used as a Michael acceptor...

Given the significance of carbohydrates in life, medicine, and industry, the development of simple and efficient de novo methods to synthesize carbohydrates are highly desirable. Organocatalytic asymmetric assembly reactions are powerful tools to rapidly construct molecules with stereochemical complexity from simple precursors. Here, we present a simple and robust methodology for the asymmetric...

[reaction: see text] A study of the effect of Michael acceptor stereochemistry on the efficiency of intramolecular Morita-Baylis-Hillman (MBH) reactions has been performed. The reactions were catalyzed by a phosphine, and the reaction substrates studied were enones containing a pendant aldehyde moiety attached at the beta-position of the alkene group. In all cases examined with PPh3 as the cata...