Current Research

Our group pursues the synthesis of molecules of biological importance. We are interested in the synthesis of inhibitors of neutral-sphingomyelinase, telomerase, helicase as well as inhibitors of a variety of other biological mechanisms that are important to human health and the treatment of disease. We select biologically active target molecules that cannot be easily addressed by current asymmetric methods. Therefore, a central focus of ours has been to develop new synthetic and asymmetric methods for preparing relatively inaccessible structural ensembles. For example, there are very few methods for the enantioselective construction of a chiral center to an aromatic ring or the enantioselective construction of a cyclohexyl ring system containing a chiral tertiary alcohol or tertiary amine functionality. We have developed synthetic processes that address the stereoselective construction of these unique structures. We aim to be better builders of structurally interesting molecules and discoverers of new processes rather than tweaking current chemical transformations.

Undergraduate are expected to work for at least two summers and complete enough work for a publication. Contact Dr. Pettus if you are interested. Graduate students typically begin with a synthetic methods project before moving on to a natural product synthesis by their 2nd or 3rd year. Most graduate students finish their Ph.D. within five years earning 4-5 publications and finding employment in the pharmaceutical industry.

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