Molecules for Human Health Research

New synthetic methods for the synthesis of heterocyclic rings, Medicinal chemistry: design and synthesis of novel anticancer agents and anti-infective therapies.

Development and applications of quantum mechanical methods to elucidate the electronic structure and properties of molecules and materials, with a focus on computational catalyst design for renewable energy conversion and storage.

Development of RNA-targeted antibacterial/antiviral agents. Molecular/structural biology, molecular modeling/computational chemistry applied to drug discovery.

Development of synthetic peptides to study and manipulate protein-protein interactions. Chemical biology, protein biochemistry, peptide chemistry, synthetic biologics.

Design, synthesis, characterization and host-guest recognition of supramolecular architectures, with a focus on pumpkin-shaped Cucurbit[n]uril hosts and their extreme binding affinities in water.

Organic synthesis of bioactive/medicinally important natural products; metallocarbenoid intermediates to form various types of oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur ylides.

Elucidating fundamental mechanisms in regulation of senescent and carcinogenic responses in mammalian skin cell/tissue after solar ultraviolet light exposure.

Forensic Chemistry / Food and Agricultural Chemistry / Metabolomics / Environmental Chemistry / Material Science