Research Summary

The Sarlah Group focuses on discovering new reactivities and guiding principles for the synthesis of complex molecules. By combining natural product synthesis, reaction development, and asymmetric catalysis, the group advances the frontiers of organic chemistry while enabling the discovery of biologically active compounds with potential applications in medicine.

Keywords

Organic synthesis, Organic chemistry, methodology development, Natural products chemistry

Biography

David was born and raised in Slovenia, where he obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry from the University of Ljubljana. He carried out his undergraduate research with Prof. K. C. Nicolaou at Scripps Research and Prof. Samuel J. Danishefsky at Columbia, where he got his first taste of total synthesis. In 2006, David moved to California and completed his Ph.D. studies with Prof. K. C. Nicolaou in 2011, where he worked on the target-driven total synthesis of complex natural products. David then joined Prof. Erick M. Carreira's group at ETH as a postdoctoral fellow and explored the field of asymmetric synthesis involving Ir-catalyzed allylation chemistry. In 2014, David joined the faculty at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and moved to Rice University in 2024. His research interests span from the synthesis of complex, biologically active natural products and the related chemical biology to methodology development.