Scott Miller

Dr. Miller's laboratory is focused on the creation of new catalysts for complex molecule synthesis and derivatization. Historically, the Miller Lab has endeavored to develop peptide-based catalysts for enantioselective reactions. They have also attempted to bring the principles of asymmetric catalysis into areas of other types of selective synthesis (e.g., regioselectivity, site-selectivity and chemoselectivity), with a particular focus on natural product diversification. They focus on molecular functionality that is ubiquitous in complex natural products, thus allowing these naturally occurring materials to be used as scaffolds for new bioactive entity synthesis. In orthogonal projects, the Miller Lab has developed catalysts for many enantioselective reactions, with a focus on unusual and biochemically relevant aspects of stereochemistry.

The Miller Lab's focus for catalyst development has been on peptide-based catalysts. The catalysts they generate have therefore allowed for a consideration of mechanistic analogies to enzymes. This strategy has also enabled optimization of the catalysts with the development of a range of combinatorial methods for catalyst screening.