Welcome to the Laboratory of Asymmetric Catalysis and Synthesis (LCSA) headed by Professor Nicolai Cramer. We are a young and dynamic research team working on challenges in asymmetric metal-catalyzed reactions and the synthesis of bioactive natural products.
LATEST NEWS
29.09.2025: Wilfrido’s new publication on the Co(III)-catalyzed enantioselective synthesis of 1,2-amino alcohols is now available in ACS Catalysis. Check it out!
05.09.2025: Bram earned the Overall Best Poster Presentation award by the American Chemical Society, presenting his exciting work on cyclopentadienyl ligands and their application in C-H-activation catalysis at the International Symposium on Synthesis and Catalysis (ISySyCat) 2025 in Coimbra, Portugal. Congrats Bram!
05.09.2025: Wilfrido was awarded the Poster Prize in Catalysis Science & Technology by the Royal Society of Chemistry for his work on the Co(III)-catalyzed enantioselective synthesis of 1,2-amino alcohols at the International Symposium on Synthesis and Catalysis (ISySyCat) 2025 in Coimbra, Portugal. Congrats Wilfrido!
01.09.2025: Maxime joined the group as a new PhD student. Welcome to the LCSA, Maxime!
11.08.2025: Recent work of the systematic synthesis of chiral CAACs for enantioselective copper-catalyzed conjugate borylation of Michael acceptors by Adrien can be found in ACS Catalysis. Congrats!
15.06.2025: Navadheer successfully represented EPFL at the EuroTeQathon 2025 in Eindhoven, Netherlands and won first prize. Congrats Navadheer!
12.06.2025: Check out this Yi-Xuan’s paper on accessing carbon, boron and germanium spiro stereocenters in a unified catalytic enantioselective approach in Nature Catalysis.
29.04.2025:Â Arthur’s preprint on the iridium(III)-catalyzed ionic hydrogenation of pyridines to multi-substituted piperidines. It’s now available in ChemRxiv. Congrats Arthur!
28.04.2025: Check out Lenin’s work on the enantioselective cobalt(III)-catalyzed [4+1] annulation of benzamides in JACS. Congrats Lenin!
07.04.2025: Andrea joined the group as a new PhD student. Welcome to the LCSA, Andrea!
07.04.2025: Check out Sripati’s paper on the enantioselective acyl-trifluoromethylation of olefins by bulky thiazolium carbene catalysis in Nature Communications. Congrats!
LATEST PUBLICATIONS
W. E. Almaraz-Ortiz, N. Cramer, ACS Catal. 2025, 15, 17436: âCobalt(III)-Catalyzed Synthesis of Chiral 1,2-Amino Alcohols by CâH Carboamidationâ
A. Madron du VignĂ©, N. Cramer, ACS Catal. 2025, 15, 15102: âSystematic Synthesis of Chiral CAACs with Three Independent Stereogenic Centers for Enantioselective Copper-Catalyzed Conjugate Borylation of Michael Acceptorsâ
Y.-X. Cao, A.-S. Chauvin, S. Tong, L. Alama, N. Cramer, Nat. Catal. 2025, doi: 10.1038/s41929-025-01352-3: “Accessing Carbon, Boron and Germanium Spiro Stereocenters in a Unified Catalytic Enantioselective Approach“
A. Despois, N. Cramer, ChemRxiv 2025, doi:10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-78q6b: “Iridium(III)-Catalyzed Ionic Hydrogenation of Pyridines to Multi-Substituted Piperidines”
L. K. Verdhi, M. D. Wodrich, N. Cramer, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, 15041-15049: “Enantioselective Cobalt(III)-Catalyzed [4 + 1] Annulation of Benzamides: Cyclopropenes as One-Carbon Synthons”
S. Jana, M. D. Wodrich, N. Cramer, Nat. Commun. 2025, 16, 3293-3301: “Enantioselective acyl-trifluoromethylation of olefins by bulky thiazolium carbene catalysis”
S. Jana, N. Cramer, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 35199-35207: “Tunable Thiazolium Carbenes for Enantioselective Radical Three-Component Dicarbofunctionalizations“