In the past 15 years, there has been a tremendous increase of interest in boronic acids. Such an interest stems from the enormous importance of boronic acids in synthetic organic chemistry and the use of boronic acid themselves as biological agents. In the area of synthetic chemistry, boronic acids are important intermediates in Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions, copper-catalyzed coupling to amino- and hydroxyl functionalities, rhodium-catalyzed conjugate additions, nucleophilic additions to imines, protection of diols, Diels-Alder reactions, asymmetric synthesis of amino acids, selective reduction of aldehydes, carboxylic acid activation, and as templates and catalysts in organic synthesis. As potential biological agents, boronic acids have been used as enzyme inhibitors, boron neutron capture therapy agents, feed-back controlled drug delivery polymers, saccharide sensors and lectin mimics for cell-surface polysaccharide recognition. This symposium will try to capture important developments in all these areas. |
