Dr. Daniel Morton
Managing Director
Emory University
Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Methodology Development, Catalyst Design
Dr. Daniel Morton completed his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry in 2005, from the University of East Anglia, UK, supervised by Prof. Robert Stockman and Prof. Robert Field. The focus of his work was the synthesis of chiral vinyl aziridines and their reaction as versatile intermediates for further elaboration.
In 2005 Daniel joined the Nelson Group at the University of Leeds, UK, where he worked on two projects; the total synthesis of Hemi-brevetoxin B via a two-directional strategy using a key de-symmetrization reaction at a late stage and a Diversity Oriented Synthesis porject using a novel modular approach to access novel chemical space and the assessment of these compounds in whole cell assays.
In 2008 Daniel joined the Davies group where his work focused on exploring the factors that influence site-selectivity of carbene C–H insertion in cyclic alkanes, some of the early investigations of Phase I of the CCHF and a medicinal chemistry project exploiting the insertion of steroidal carbenes into alcohols to rapidly generate a library of over 70 compounds for testing against aromatase, a key target in breast cancer biochemistry.
In 2011 Daniel took a position as a Senior Scientist at Chirotech, in Cambridge, UK, where he focused on the application of asymmetric catalysis to streamline access to valuable drug targets or interemediates.
In 2013, at the inception of Phase II of the CCHF, Daniel returned as the Managing Director of the CCHF.