Lutz Friedjan Tietze

was born on March 14, 1942 in Berlin and studied chemistry and economics in Kiel and Freiburg. In 1966 he obtained his diploma and in 1968, his Ph.D., working on the specific oxidation of laudanosoline derivatives, both under the guidance of B. Franck at the University of Kiel. After two years as a research associate in the group of G. Büchi at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he became scientific assistant at the University of Münster/Westphalia. After a second stay abroad with A. R. Battersby at the University of Cambridge (UK) he finished his habilitation in 1975 on the biogenesis and synthesis of secologanine. In 1977 he was appointed associate professor at the University of Dortmund, from where he moved to the University of Göttingen one year later to become full professor and Director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry. He was visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (1982), at the EHICS Strasbourg (1995), at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (1999), and at the University of Bologna, Italy (2001). For his book Reactions and Syntheses in the Organic Chemistry Laboratory (German: Thieme, English: University Science Books), which he published together with Th. Eicher and which was translated into English, Japanese, Russian, and Korean, the two authors were awarded the Literature Prize of the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie (1982). Tietze is a member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, honorary fellow of the Society of Argentinian Chemists (SAIQO), fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, and chairman of the steering committee of the German Chemical Societies. In 1994 a Doctor honoris causa was granted to him by the University of Szeged (Hungary), and in 2002 he received the Grignard-Wittig Award of the Société Fran-çaise de Chimie and the Silver Medal of the University of Szeged, Hungary. Tietze is author of some 320 publications and 22 patents.

Scientific Sketch

The scientific interests of Professor Tietze are very broad. Apart from “classical” total synthesis of biologically potent natural products such as the macrolide antibiotic 5,6-dihydrocinero-mycin B (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2001, 40, 901) and cephalotaxine (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1999, 121, 10264), the development of new efficient and selective synthetic methods in organic chemistry matches his focus.

His protocol for the allylation of ketones to obtain the corresponding homoallylic tertiary alcohols using norpseudoephedrine (NPE) derivative as an auxiliary is the only known method to differentiate between a methyl- and an ethyl-group (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. Allylation of ketones using a nor-pseudoephedrine derivative as auxiliary.

Furthermore, his name is associated with the development of domino processes such as the domino Knoevenagel hetero Diels-Alder reaction sequence that was employed in the total synthesis of hirsutine (1) (Fig. 2, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 1999, 38,2045).

Figure 2. The domino Knoevenagel hetero Diels-Alder reaction sequence used in the total synthesis of enantiopure hirsutine (1).

In addition to combinatorial chemistry and the application of high pressure in organic synthesis to increase, for example, the selectivity of Diels-Alder reactions, he is interested in the development of new anticancer agents for selective tumor therapy that are tested in interdisciplinary cooperations. Tietze has developed some highly potent prodrugs of the antibiotic CC-1065, which show excellent selectivity factors of more than 3000 between prodrug and corresponding toxin. The prodrug will be transformed into the active anticancer drug selectively at the cancer cell in the organism through glycolysis followed by a Winstein-cyclization, as shown in Fig. 3, using a conjugate of glycohydrolase and an monoclonal antibody, which binds to the cancer cells (Angew. Chem. Int Ed. 2002, 41, 765).

Figure 3. The highly potent anticancer agent CBI-Q and its activation due to the ADEPT concept.

Pork Roulades with Cheese

Starting materials (serves 4):

4 pork roulades

1 tbsp mustard

salt

pepper

2 tbsp butter

4 slices chester cheese

1 glass white wine

parsley

The cleaned and dried meat slices are plated, salted, peppered, and coated with mustard. Then they are covered with a slice of chester cheese and some parsley, rolled up, and secured with string. Heat the butter in a pan and brown the roulades well all over. Add a little hot water and the white wine and braise the roulades, turning them occasionally for 60 to 80 minutes.

Serve them together with curry rice and salad.

The Perfect Sauce

«Andrea was standing in the kitchen preparing a delicous sauce for the favorite dish of her father. A lot of different ingredients piled up in front of her: milk, cream, salt, pepper, and a big bag of flour. Andrea was still a child and had no experience in cooking, but this sauce had to be perfect according to her ambition, because it was her father’s birthday.

Andrea ladled the broth carefully out of the roasting tin with the meat rolls, put it into a small pot, and took the bag with the flour. She stirred one tablespoon of the flour into a cup and waited until the broth was boiling. Then she added the flour into the pot and stirred eagerly with all her might, preventing the formation of small lumps, because her father hated these lumps like poison. Now she had to season the sauce. But this was more complicated than she had expected. In spite of all her efforts, the sauce did not taste right. Despairingly, she tried some paprika - without success. Then she tried cream, pepper, and flavor enhancer without any success. She seasoned and tasted and suddenly the door was opened. The great master himself entered the kitchen and at first sight he checked the situation. He opened the drawer with the kitchen utensiles and took out a big spoon. Then he tasted the sauce and said: “The sauce cries for acid, don’t you hear that? Two spoons of lemon juice will help in this case.” And now he spoke the unforgotten and important words: “Andrea, you have to put yourself into the inside of things. Cooking is like chemistry. A chemist has to put himself into the position of the molecules. Then he knows what such a molecule wants and how it reacts. Now he is able to understand the reaction. You have to do so in the kitchen, then you can be sure that everything succeeds.”»

Karin Tietze