José María Lassaletta Simón

Group: Asymmetric Catalisis

Position: Research Professor

Contact

Tel. ext: 446263

Laboratory: L 201

Office: D 208

Email:

ORCID: 0000-0003-1772-2723

Biography

José María Lassaletta received his Ph. D. in 1990 at the University of Seville. After a postdoctoral stage in the ‘Instituto de la Grasa y sus Derivados’ (CSIC, Seville) he joined the group of Professor Richard R. Schmidt (U. Konstanz, Germany) to work on the total synthesis of Globo-series glycosphingolipids. In 1995 he moved to the Instituto de Investigaciones Químicas (CSIC, Seville) and promoted to Tenured Scientist in 1997, Research Scientist in 2006, and Research Professor in 2011. Prof. Lassaletta has been responsible of numerous grants from national and regional funding agencies, as well as several contracts with industrial partners. He has participated as responsible or co–responsible in grants and actions funded under several European programs. His research activity has been collected in 141 publications (Web of Science), most of them in top level journals. These papers were cited 6717 times (~500 cites/year in the last 5 years, h = 44 (WOS); h = 46 (Scopus).

He has supervised 30 PhD Theses and ca. 20 postdoctoral students, and imparted 70 invited/plenary lectures in national /international meetings and research centers. Peer reviewing: He has 282 peer review records, mainly in for highly reputed journals. He is also frequent evaluator for the Spanish Research Agency AEI. Occasional evaluator for foreign research agencies: The Nobel Committee for Chemistry, European Science Foundation (ESF), ACS Petroleum Research Fund (EEUU), Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR, France), etc…

Selected recognitions: ‘Felix Serratosa Lecturer’ in 2011, invited professor at the University Pierre et Marie Curie in 2016, and ‘Ignacio Ribas’ medal from the Organic Chemistry Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2017. He is member of the ‘Sociedad Gadea Ciencia’ and director of the International School on Organometallic Chemistry “Marcial Moreno Mañas”. He has been selected by Elsevier/Stanford University as one of the world’s Top 2% Scientists’ in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Research interests

Within the realm of Asymmetric Catalysis, the currently active rersearch lines include:

1. Ligand design for enantioselective transition metal-catalyzed transformations, with emphasis in chiral hydrazones and N-heterocyclic carbenes.

2. Atroposelective synthesis of axially chiral (hetero)biaryls.

3. New activation modes in anion binding catalysis.

4. The reactivity of hydrazones as carbon nucleophiles, using asymmetric organocatalysis as the main activation strategy.

Selected publications

• A. Romero-Arenas, V. Hornillos, J. Iglesias-Sigüenza, R. Fernández, J. López-Serrano, A. Ros, J. M. Lassaletta. “Ir-Catalyzed Atroposelective Desymmetrization of Heterobiaryls: Hydroarylation of Vinyl Ethers and Bicycloalkenes.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 2628-2639. Among most cited cited jacs publication from 2020-2021.
• P. García-Fernandez, J. Iglesias-Sigüenza, P. Rivero-Jerez, E. Díez, E. Gómez-Bengoa, R. Fernández, J. M. Lassaletta. “Au(I)-Catalyzed Hydroalkynylation of Haloalkynes” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 16082–16089. Highlight: Synfacts 2020, 16(11), 1320. Highlight: Organic Chemistry Portal: https://www.organic-chemistry.org/abstracts/lit7/531.shtm.
• A. Carmona, C. Rodríguez-Franco, R. Fernández, V. Hornillos, J. M. Lassaletta “Atroposelective Transformation of Axially Chiral (Hetero)Biaryls. From Desymmetrization to Modern Dynamization Strategies” Chem. Soc. Rev. 2021, 50, 2968-2983. Highly cited paper (WOK).
• E. Matador, J. Iglesias-Sigüenza, D. Monge, P. Merino, R. Fernández, J. M. Lassaletta “Enantio- and Diastereoselective Nucleophilic Addition of N-tert-Butyl Hydrazones to Isoquinolinium Ions through Anion-Binding Catalysis” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60,5096-5101. ‘Hot paper’. Highlight: Synfacts 2021, 17, 0210.
• C. Rodríguez-Franco, E. Roldán-Molina, A. Aguirre-Medina, R. Fernández, V. Hornillos J. M. Lassaletta, “Catalytic Atroposelective Synthesis of C–N Axially Chiral Aminophosphines via Dynamic Kinetic Resolution” Angew. Chem. Int. 2024, e202409524.