Frederic Leroux obtained a PhD in chemistry at the University of Konstanz (Germany), under the supervision of Prof. H. Fischer. In 1998, he moved to a postdoctoral position with Prof. M. Schlosser at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) and accepted the same year a position of Assistant Professor. In 2001 he moved then to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). He started his independent research career in 2003 as CNRS Research Associate at the University of Strasbourg (France). He obtained his habilitation in 2005 and was promoted CNRS Research Director in 2009.

Frederic Leroux is presently the director of the molecular chemistry department “Laboratoire d’Innovation Moléculaire et Applications” UMR CNRS 7042-LIMA of the Université de Strasbourg (lima.unistra.fr) and director of the joint CNRS-Bayer laboratory on organofluorine chemistry.

His research (coha.unistra.fr) is published in >120 peer-reviewed publications, 18 patents, 11 books and book chapters and presented by invitation at >80 (inter)national conferences. He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. He is also a member of the International Scientific Committee of the Moissan Prize (Fluorine Chemistry), Director of the French Fluorine Network (http://www.reseau-fluor.fr) and President of the French-Japanese Society of Medicinal and Fine Chemistry (fjs.crihan.fr).

The philosophy of his research is based on a fruitful interplay of several objectives (a) the synthesis of biologically relevant molecules, (b) asymmetric methodologies using organic and organometallic chemistry, (c) organofluorine chemistry and (d) application of the objectives to industrial problems, which led to strong industrial collaborations. The discovery of new and mild methodologies to introduce fluorine atoms or emergent fluorinated groups onto heterocycles as well as their stereoselective introduction onto Csp3-centers is a key topic of his research and developed in close collaboration with industry.

The Tokyo Institute of Technology is one of the world-leading universities in education and research. The WRHI will provide me a unique tool to conduct research at a cutting-edge research field (i.e. fluorine chemistry) in collaboration with international renown teams at the TIT and to explore new ideas and approaches, to incubate fundamental and innovative research at the highest level, to perform with colleagues at TIT reflections at the crossroads of disciplines in order to bring out new areas of knowledge and to share knowledge with the Japanese society.

• Development of a fully catalytic method of enantioselective difluoromethylation

  Fluorinated organic molecules have become the focus of intense research in view of their highly desirable properties in medicine and other Life Sciences. In particular, the specific properties afforded by the difluoromethyl group have motivated intense research. One challenge in this field has yet to be addressed, namely a general access to chiral compounds bearing a difluoromethyl- substituted stereocenter. Herein, we propose a new, enantioselective catalytic difluoromethylation method, based on our combined existing expertise in organofluorine chemistry and control of chirality. The method will involve abundant, cheap or affordable reaction partners (aldehydes, ketones, hydrosilanes, difluoroacyl derivatives) and a key chiral catalyst (an organo-superbase) in small amounts and will provide difluoromethylated chiral building-blocks of high added value. A step-by-step approach, based on state-of-the-art methods, will ensure the success of the project and finally overcome the challenge of enantioselective difluoromethylation.
  2018-2020
  ANR, IcFRC
  Koichi Mikami (TIT), Gilles Hanquet (Unistra), Armen Panossian (Unistra)

  Difluoromethylation enantioselective catalytic superbases