TSRI Faculty Interests

Bioorganic Chemistry

Barbas III, Carlos  
designs zinc finger protein-based transcription factors for the directed regulation of gene expression and gene discovery; programs complex reaction mechanisms into antibodies and uses them to treat cancer; develops new approaches to catalytic asymmetric synthesis; and uses phage display methods to evolve antibodies with the potential to become new immunotherapeutic and gene therapeutic approaches to diseases like breast and ovarian cancer, melanoma, and AIDS.

Boger, Dale  
works on the total synthesis of biologically active natural products using the tools of organic synthesis to identify, imitate, understand, exploit, and sometimes surpass what nature provides.

Cravatt, Benjamin  
studies the action and regulation of chemical messengers, particularly the fatty acid amides, which mediate physiological phenomena like pain sensation, sleep, and thermoregulation; he designs and uses chemical probes for "active site proteomics," the global analysis of protein function.

Fokin, Valery  
develops preactical catalytic transformations for organic synthesis, combinatorial chemistry, chemical biology, and materials research; searches for novel antiviral agents, nicotinic receptor ligands, and protease inhibitors.

Ghadiri, M.Reza  
develops novel methods for the rational design and construction of functional and interesting bioorganic molecules, such as novel antimicrobial agents, catalytic peptides, biosensors, self-replicating systems, and molecular logic gates.

Janda, Kim  
Investigates biological catalysts, development of methods for the detection of and protection against chemical/biological warfare agents, combinatorial chemical libraries, synthesis and evaluation of enzyme inhibitors, solid-phase organic synthesis, quorum sensing within bacterial systems, lead discovery and detection strategies for tropical diseases, antibody/peptide phage display libraries, cell-penetrating peptides as therapeutic delivery vehicles, and the application of immunopharmacotherapy in the treatment of drug addiction, cancer and obesity.

Nicolaou, K.C.  
works on the total synthesis of biologically active natural and designed molecules and the discovery and development of new synthetic strategies and technologies.

Powers, Evan  
is interested in the energetics and mechanisms of protein folding and aggregation.

Rebek Jr., Julius  
studies basic questions of molecular recognition, self-assembly, catalysis, and complementarity by designing novel organic molecular nanocapsules and synthetic receptors.

Romesberg, Floyd  
seeks to understand and evolve novel protein function by expanding the genetic code, to understand the molecular basis of DNA damage, repair, and mutagenesis, and to use femtosecond laser pulses to probe protein dynamics.

Sharpless, K. Barry 
discovers new and useful transformations for organic synthesis, particularly employing inorganic catalysts and olefin-derived compounds of high reactivity; he also applies "in situ" click chemistry, which makes enzymes into reaction vessels and templates for the formation of their own inhibitors.

Yu, Jin-Quan  
Discovers regioselective and enantioselective reactions based on C-H activations and applies these reactions to drug discovery and natural product synthesis.