PhD & Postdoc

Marie Leclerc

Organic Chemistry · Sorbonne Universite

Marie Leclerc is a PhD candidate in Organic Chemistry at Sorbonne Universite, supervised by Prof. Janine Cossy. Her thesis achieves the first enantioselective total syntheses of three marine sponge-derived polyketide natural products using gold-catalysed cyclisation and Evans auxiliary-mediated aldol strategies, unlocking gram-scale material for biological evaluation. Eleven publications in Organic Letters, JACS and Angewandte Chemie document her synthetic methodology and target completion work. Marie received an ANR doctoral scholarship and an Excellence in Synthesis award at the 47th IUPAC World Chemistry Congress. She has accepted a synthetic medicinal chemistry scientist position at Servier in Paris. Her synthesis route for the most complex target achieves 22-step completion with 18-percent overall yield, setting a new benchmark for marine polyketide total synthesis.

Thesis Topic

Total synthesis of marine polyketide natural products via gold-catalysed cyclisation strategies

Transition Signals