After this course, you are able to:

• develop straightforward multistep sequences to chemically modify small (bio)molecules such as carbohydrates, amino acids and peptides
• distinguish a variety of reactions of carbonyl compounds and apply this knowledge on more complex carbonyl-containing (bio)molecules
• understand the difference in reactivity of different carbonyl-containing functional groups such as aldehydes, ketones, esters, amides and carboxylic acids and recognize how they will react under different circumstances

As an extension of the fundamental reaction-types explored in 'reactions and kinetics', this course deals with more advanced concepts that are applied in organic synthesis (of biomolecules). The set-up of the course consists of a conceptual approach, based on reaction mechanisms.