Research Interests
Molecular Tools for Biomedical Discovery
Our research program emphasizes the importance of small molecule interactions within biological systems. New synthetic methodology will drive the synthesis of natural products and fragment based small molecule collections. An ancillary, yet possibly more profound goal of this program is to arm our national screening infrastructure with skeletally intriguing small molecules. These collaborative efforts will facilitate the discovery of new targets and strategies for the advancement of biomedical research. Initially, these synthetic achievements will support the exploration of post-translational arginine modifications in cell signaling. The recent implication of these events in a number of disease states (multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, glaucoma and tumorogenesis) encourages the preparation of biological tools and therapeutic leads. Projects poised to deliver antibiotic collections for the inhibition of prokaryotic protein synthesis will also be initiated. Molecules with purported rRNA binding interactions that are uncharacterized or non-overlapping with known sites of resistance will be targeted to advance our understanding of RNA's binding topology.
