White Group
@mcwhitegroup.bsky.social
M. Christina White (🇬🇷🇺🇸 Chemist) research group, Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois
https://whitegroupillinois.wixsite.com/thewhitegroup/
https://whitegroupillinois.wixsite.com/thewhitegroup/
Emma Mize rocked her prelim exam! @ proud mentors with Hannah Way.
November 14, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Emma Mize rocked her prelim exam! @ proud mentors with Hannah Way.
Interested in sculpting strong C—H bonds in complex natural products? Check out this video (directed by Emma Mize): youtu.be/iskQZ4m0UBI?...
November 5, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Interested in sculpting strong C—H bonds in complex natural products? Check out this video (directed by Emma Mize): youtu.be/iskQZ4m0UBI?...
Interested in sculpting strong C—H bonds in complex natural products? Check out this video (directed by Emma Mitz): youtu.be/cGD_8zw9mtQ?...
November 3, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Interested in sculpting strong C—H bonds in complex natural products? Check out this video (directed by Emma Mitz): youtu.be/cGD_8zw9mtQ?...
Happy Halloween from the creative MCWhite group team!
October 31, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Happy Halloween from the creative MCWhite group team!
Happy Halloween from the creative MCWhite group team!
October 31, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Happy Halloween from the creative MCWhite group team!
Check out @ChemistryUIUC article “Sculpting strong C—H bonds in complex natural products” by Tracy Crane:
chemistry.illinois.edu/news/2025-10...
chemistry.illinois.edu/news/2025-10...
October 30, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Check out @ChemistryUIUC article “Sculpting strong C—H bonds in complex natural products” by Tracy Crane:
chemistry.illinois.edu/news/2025-10...
chemistry.illinois.edu/news/2025-10...
Meet the awesome MCWhite team @OCB_UIUC @ChemistryUIUC led by graduate student Chiyoung Ahn (PhD ’25) & Alex Gomez (PhD ’25) w/Marc Hartmann (MS ’25). They discovered a way to selectively oxidize strong methylenes in the presence of weaker allylic & pi bonds @Nature Article: doi.org/10.1038/s415...
October 28, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Meet the awesome MCWhite team @OCB_UIUC @ChemistryUIUC led by graduate student Chiyoung Ahn (PhD ’25) & Alex Gomez (PhD ’25) w/Marc Hartmann (MS ’25). They discovered a way to selectively oxidize strong methylenes in the presence of weaker allylic & pi bonds @Nature Article: doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Hold the vinegar! Before we showed PDP oxidations (C—H [O] & epoxidation) are “turned on” by adding acetic acid & derivatives. Now we discover that replacing the carboxylic acid w/ electron deficient alcohol solvent preparative chemoselectivity is possible: C—H [O] is 39X faster than epoxidation!
October 23, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Hold the vinegar! Before we showed PDP oxidations (C—H [O] & epoxidation) are “turned on” by adding acetic acid & derivatives. Now we discover that replacing the carboxylic acid w/ electron deficient alcohol solvent preparative chemoselectivity is possible: C—H [O] is 39X faster than epoxidation!
We said it’s not enough! Now late-stage C—H oxidation on crazy complex a,b-unsaturated NPs (size of small proteins) using simple catalysts! Check out what PDP catalysis can do when you replace the carboxylic acid for an electron deficient alcohol: @Nature (preview): doi.org/10.1038/s415...
October 21, 2025 at 4:28 PM
We said it’s not enough! Now late-stage C—H oxidation on crazy complex a,b-unsaturated NPs (size of small proteins) using simple catalysts! Check out what PDP catalysis can do when you replace the carboxylic acid for an electron deficient alcohol: @Nature (preview): doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Interested in cutting strong bonds in the presence of weak ones? Check out what Mn(PDP) catalysis can do when you change it’s mechanism of action @Nature (Advanced Article Preview) : www.nature.com/articles/s41...
October 20, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Interested in cutting strong bonds in the presence of weak ones? Check out what Mn(PDP) catalysis can do when you change it’s mechanism of action @Nature (Advanced Article Preview) : www.nature.com/articles/s41...
What are Chiyoung Ahn, Alex Gomez and MCW working on? Dropping soon...
October 17, 2025 at 7:27 PM
What are Chiyoung Ahn, Alex Gomez and MCW working on? Dropping soon...
Honor to be the 2025 Scaiano Lecture at U. Ottawa & meet Tito Scaiano whose love for chemistry & education makes it possible. Thanks to my host Claudia Natola & an amazing group of talented grads for their energy and engagement.
September 30, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Honor to be the 2025 Scaiano Lecture at U. Ottawa & meet Tito Scaiano whose love for chemistry & education makes it possible. Thanks to my host Claudia Natola & an amazing group of talented grads for their energy and engagement.
It was an honor to speak at the EFMC 2025 meeting in beautiful Porto, Portugal with an inspiring group of colleagues to a packed house! Thanks to fantastic organizers Nuno Maulide & Malin Lemurell!
September 16, 2025 at 2:01 PM
It was an honor to speak at the EFMC 2025 meeting in beautiful Porto, Portugal with an inspiring group of colleagues to a packed house! Thanks to fantastic organizers Nuno Maulide & Malin Lemurell!
Meet: Andrew Yue (UIUC BS 2024, now grad student @JacobsenGroup) joined the MCWhite group as a freshman under mentorship of Brenna Budaitis. He merged C(sp3)H/N(sp2) cross-couplings with the Mori-Ban for a diversifiable synthesis of zafirlukast (Accolade) (@J_A_C_S pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...) .
September 5, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Meet: Andrew Yue (UIUC BS 2024, now grad student @JacobsenGroup) joined the MCWhite group as a freshman under mentorship of Brenna Budaitis. He merged C(sp3)H/N(sp2) cross-couplings with the Mori-Ban for a diversifiable synthesis of zafirlukast (Accolade) (@J_A_C_S pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...) .
Meet the Team: Congrats Zach Firestein winner of the @ChemistryUIUC Fuson award! Checkout Zach’s work on making 3o arylamines using a Ma-SOX Pd catalyzed C(sp3)H/N(sp2) cross-coupling (@J_A_C_S pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...) at the Heterocycles GRC 2026!
September 4, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Meet the Team: Congrats Zach Firestein winner of the @ChemistryUIUC Fuson award! Checkout Zach’s work on making 3o arylamines using a Ma-SOX Pd catalyzed C(sp3)H/N(sp2) cross-coupling (@J_A_C_S pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...) at the Heterocycles GRC 2026!
Meet the Team: Brenna Budaitis a MCWhite group & @ChemistryUIUC alum (PhD ’24) now a scientist @abbvie. Checkout Brenna at graduation and part of her thesis research recently published @J_A_C_S : pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
September 3, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Meet the Team: Brenna Budaitis a MCWhite group & @ChemistryUIUC alum (PhD ’24) now a scientist @abbvie. Checkout Brenna at graduation and part of her thesis research recently published @J_A_C_S : pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Meet “Amination Nation” team @OCB_UIUC @ChemistryUIUC: Grad student captain Brenna Budaitis & co-captain Zachary Firestein w/ undergrad Andrew Yue. They discovered a reaction to synthesize challenging 3o arylamines (>80 examples) using one catalyst (Ma-SOXPd) under uniform & ambient conditions
September 1, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Meet “Amination Nation” team @OCB_UIUC @ChemistryUIUC: Grad student captain Brenna Budaitis & co-captain Zachary Firestein w/ undergrad Andrew Yue. They discovered a reaction to synthesize challenging 3o arylamines (>80 examples) using one catalyst (Ma-SOXPd) under uniform & ambient conditions
Ligand/amine dance: Ma-SOX does a "do-si-do" with aryl amines on Pd to promote C—H cleavage & functionalization. The result: a highly efficient catalytic reaction to make electron deficient and sterically hindered tertiary arylamines. Check it out @J_A_C_S : pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
August 29, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Ligand/amine dance: Ma-SOX does a "do-si-do" with aryl amines on Pd to promote C—H cleavage & functionalization. The result: a highly efficient catalytic reaction to make electron deficient and sterically hindered tertiary arylamines. Check it out @J_A_C_S : pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
What are MCW, Brenna Budaitis (@abbvie) and Zach Firestein working on? Something dropping soon!
August 27, 2025 at 2:10 PM
What are MCW, Brenna Budaitis (@abbvie) and Zach Firestein working on? Something dropping soon!
Throwback Thursday: It’s all about Ma-SOX! Check out Rulin Ma's (MCWhite Group PhD 2019, @Relay_Tx) publication introducing THE catalyst for allylic C—H to C—N cross-couplings. More coming soon…
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
August 21, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Throwback Thursday: It’s all about Ma-SOX! Check out Rulin Ma's (MCWhite Group PhD 2019, @Relay_Tx) publication introducing THE catalyst for allylic C—H to C—N cross-couplings. More coming soon…
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Great hosting our awesome Snyder Scholar Haley Pottle @holy_cross this summer! Great chemistry & group runs!
August 11, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Great hosting our awesome Snyder Scholar Haley Pottle @holy_cross this summer! Great chemistry & group runs!
Alex Gomez’s graduation was marked by many fun & athletic group events. Thanks for encouraging us to find joy together staying active! Looking forward to seeing your group runs at Swarthmore !
July 28, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Alex Gomez’s graduation was marked by many fun & athletic group events. Thanks for encouraging us to find joy together staying active! Looking forward to seeing your group runs at Swarthmore !
Throwback Thursday: Proud of MCWhite group alum Jennifer Howell (postdoc, 2015) for promotion to Associate VP @Lillypharma! Her HBF4 strategy makes C—H oxidations & amination in [N] compounds possible: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
July 3, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Throwback Thursday: Proud of MCWhite group alum Jennifer Howell (postdoc, 2015) for promotion to Associate VP @Lillypharma! Her HBF4 strategy makes C—H oxidations & amination in [N] compounds possible: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Throwback Thursday: Mentor & Mentee Reunited! MCWhite Group alums Prof. Shauna Paradine (PhD 2015, @paradinelab.bsky.social, Univ. Rochester) & Prof. Shannon Miller (BS 2016, @_ShannonMMiller, Scripps): www.nature.com/articles/nch...
June 26, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Throwback Thursday: Mentor & Mentee Reunited! MCWhite Group alums Prof. Shauna Paradine (PhD 2015, @paradinelab.bsky.social, Univ. Rochester) & Prof. Shannon Miller (BS 2016, @_ShannonMMiller, Scripps): www.nature.com/articles/nch...
Thanks to rising star Yang Yang for hosting an awesome visit to UC Santa Barbara @ucsbchemistry for Novartis Lectureship. Incredible students & faculty and an inspiring lecture from Dr. Christopher Sarko @Novartis!
June 18, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Thanks to rising star Yang Yang for hosting an awesome visit to UC Santa Barbara @ucsbchemistry for Novartis Lectureship. Incredible students & faculty and an inspiring lecture from Dr. Christopher Sarko @Novartis!