Total Organic and Bioorganic Synthesis

The focus of my research would be on the design, development and total synthesis of natural and non-natural products targeting disease areas of anti-cancer, anti-HIV, anti-viral, microbial, pain, inflammation, anti-malaria, tuberculosis and anti-diabetic molecules.

Previous problems currently being or to be addressed include:

  • The synthesis of the AB, EF and IJ subunits of adriatoxin (an analogue of yessotoxin a polyether natural product which had been shown to exhibit exceptional cytotoxic activity against human cancer cell lines, inducing caspase activation, causing apoptotic changes, and induces a two-fold increase in cytosolic calcium as published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 8055-8058.
  • The synthetic efforts of pectenotoxin 1 and 6 (an anticancer agent which depolymerizes actin and induces apoptosis in p53 deficient tumor cells).
  • Synthesized a series of mono and per-substituted amino cyclodextrin derivatives as inserts into α-hemolysin ion channels – a collaborative work with Prof. Henry White at University of Utah.
  • Fully synthesized and characterization of quinazolinone hit compounds as inhibitors of PARP-1, poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase exhibiting ~60-80 nM activity.
  • Fully synthesized and characterization of korormicin derivatives which has an inhibitory activity towards the growth of marine Gram-negative bacteria.
  • Fully synthesized and characterization of hundreds of novel hit compounds of phenyl-indeno-pyrimidin derivatives as optimized adenosine A2A/A1 receptor antagonists targeting the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
  • Designed and synthesized new perphenylated cross-conjugated iso-polydiacetylenes (iso-PDAs) using an iterative divergent route as potential candidates for optical and material applications as published in Chem. Eur. J., 2005, 11, 321-329.
  • Assembled a series of polyenyne oligomers, thus tert-butyldimethylsilyl (TBDMS) end-capped iso-polydiacetylenes (iso-PDAs) and 7,7,8,8-tetraethynyl-dihydro-p-quinodimethane (TEQ) derivatives for optical and material applications.
  • Synthetic efforts of alkaloids, heterocyclics, anti-viral, antibiotics, anti-fungi, antitumor agents of biological interests.
  • Design and synthesis of novel libraries of spirocyclic natural and non-natural products of small organic molecules of broad structural diversity for binding to and modulating the function of biological targets.