Aromatic Metamorphosis: Skeletal Editing of Aromatic Rings

Hideki Yorimitsu / Kyoto University, Japan

June 11, 2026, 10:00–11:00 am CEST

Online live talk

Introduction

Aromatic skeletons are generally resistant to cleavage due to their high stabilization energy and strong endocyclic bonds. While exocyclic functionalizations are well explored, endocyclic modifications via partial disassembly and ring reconstruction remain less studied. Here, I disclose our efforts to establish 'aromatic metamorphosis', a strategy that transforms common aromatic compounds such as thiophenes, benzofurans, and indoles into distinct ring systems through multi-step or ideally single-step processes. Aromatic metamorphosis, or what we may now call skeletal editing of an aromatic ring, challenges traditional frameworks in organic chemistry and provides new efficient or sustainable tools for synthesizing otherwise inaccessible heterocycles and generating chemical libraries with diverse endocyclic frameworks.

 

 

Hideki Yorimitsu

was born in Kochi, Japan, in 1975. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2002 from Kyoto University under the tutelage of Professor Koichiro Oshima. He then served as a JSPS postdoctoral fellow with Professor Eiichi Nakamura at the University of Tokyo. Subsequently, he became Assistant Professor (2003) and Associate Professor (2008) in the Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University. In 2009, he moved to the Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, where he was promoted to Full Professor in 2015. His research focuses on the development of new organic transformations that create new molecules, phenomena, and concepts. He received the Mukaiyama Award in 2016, the Negishi Award in 2018, the JSPS Prize and the Japan Academy Medal in 2020, and the Humboldt Research Award in 2025. In 2025, he was the Co-Chair (with Professor Michinori Suginome) of the 22nd International IUPAC Symposium on Organometallic Chemistry Directed Towards Organic Synthesis (OMCOS-22), in Kyoto.