General Description
We are a Chemical Biology group that aims to address problems at the interface of chemistry and biology with peptides as molecular tools. To this purpose, our research includes the development of chemical methods to synthesize and functionalize peptides and proteins and the investigation of biosynthesis of bioactive peptide natural products and related enzymology.

Macrocycles Are Great Cycles!

Biologically active macrocycles represent a remarkably diverse group of molecules and are emerging as an exciting area of medicinal chemistry. Macrocycles in drug discovery are defined as molecules containing at least one large ring composed of 12 or more atoms. Many natural products have a macrocyclic core, suggesting that an evolutionary advantage may be associated with the production of secondary metabolites based upon these scaffolds. Our group is particularly interested in macrocyclic peptides from both natural and synthetic sources. We are engaged in elucidating Nature’s strategy to utilize various enzymes to produce cyclic peptide natural products. The chemistry evolved by Nature further guides us to develop synthetic methods for peptide macrocyclization and diversification, which would lead to library of peptide/peptidomimetics for screening bioactive compounds.