Loughborough University is a top-ten rated university in England for research intensity (REF2014) and an outstanding 66% of the work of Loughborough’s academic staff who were eligible to be submitted to the REF was judged as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’, compared to a national average figure of 43%. In choosing Loughborough for your research, you’ll work alongside academics who are leaders in their field. You will benefit from comprehensive support and guidance from our Doctoral College, including tailored careers advice, to help you succeed in your research and future career. The synthesis of biologically important molecules for the development of new medicines is paramount to our health and wellbeing. One of the primary goals in developing new medicines is to synthesise them efficiently and from simple precursors within a laboratory environment. This project will involve the development of an innovative organo-catalytic Korn Blum DeLaMare rearrangement of an achiral endoperoxide to give chiral hydroxy-enone of proven value and applicability. Hydroxy-enones are an important class of molecules that have been extensively used in the synthesis of many potential new medicines; and endoperoxides are a unique class of molecules that can be easily synthesised in the laboratory by the treatment of cheap commercially available dienes with oxygen, sunlight and a catalyst. Importantly, the chemical reaction to synthesise these valuable hydroxy-enones from endoperoxides, will be of broad applicability and scope, technically simple to complete, and importantly, amenable to scale-up. This later point will be achieved by linking the synthesis of the endoperoxides with this newly developed chemical reaction, and this will be accomplished by using continuous flow technology.