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Our group pursues the synthesis of molecules of biological
importance. We are investigating 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 an aliphatic chiral center adjacent to
an aromatic ring or for the enantioselective
construction of a cyclohexyl ring system containing 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 tweak current chemical
transformations.
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| 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. Undergraduates
work for at least two summers and complete enough work for a
publication. Contact Dr. Pettus if you are interested. An [A]-grade in
organic chemistry and a desire to attend graduate school in organic
chemistry are prerequisites. |
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