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Department of Chemistry
The Johns Hopkins University
138 Remsen Hall
3400 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218

John P. Toscano
Department Chair

Phone 410-516-7429
Fax 410-516-8420
chemdept@jhu.edu


Chemistry WWW
 

Thomas Lectka

Synthetic Organic Chemistry and Catalysis

Johns Hopkins University
New Chemistry Building 315
3400 North Charles St.
Baltimore, MD 21218

Phone:  410.516.6448
Email:  lectka@jhu.edu
Lectka Group Website

Ph.D. - Cornell University
Alexander von Humboldt Fellow - Universität Heidelberg
NIH Postdoctoral Fellow - Harvard University

Research in the Lectka Group centers around the development of fundamentally new catalytic, asymmetric reactions to yield products of academic and pharmaceutical interest.  Along those lines, utility is a paramount goal.  For example, we have developed the first catalytic synthesis of beta-lactams in high enantioselectivity, employing chiral nucleophiles as catalysts, and are at present developing new catalytic, asymmetric halogenation reactions (especially medicinally relevant fluorination reactions), representing a relatively unexplored frontier in organic chemistry.  In close association with reaction development, we study in detail the mechanisms of our new reactions in order to optimize processes for large-scale production of medicinally interesting compounds.  Asymmetric catalysis on solid phase supports and reaction columns is also of current interest in our group, and several topical projects are now underway.