Kyriacos Costa Nicolaou

K. C. Nicolaou is best known for his research in the total synthesis of complex natural products, having completed the total synthesis of more than 100 biologically active molecules. His most celebrated achievements include the total syntheses of taxol, brevetoxin A and B, vancomycin, and calicheamicin.

Nicolaou's group published one of the first total syntheses of taxol (paclitaxel), the powerful anti-cancer drug originally isolated from the Pacific yew tree, in 1994. The synthesis, accomplished concurrently with a competing effort by Robert Holton's group at Florida State University, demonstrated that complex, medicinally vital natural products could be constructed from simple starting materials.

Nicolaou has held professorships at several major institutions, most notably the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, where he spent over two decades. He later joined Rice University in Houston, Texas, where he continues to lead an active research program in synthetic organic chemistry.

Nicolaou is known for his strategy-driven approach to total synthesis, in which he develops novel synthetic reactions and cascade (tandem) reaction sequences specifically to solve the structural challenges posed by the target molecule. His syntheses of molecules such as brevetoxin and thiostrepton pioneered new methods for constructing the large rings and fused polycyclic architectures characteristic of many marine natural products.