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​Our Science

Peptide Folding and Mimicry
Design, synthesis, and conformational analysis of constrained peptides and unnatural foldamers 
Natural Product Synthesis
Synthesis of biologically active nonribosomal peptides and structurally complex amino acids 
Protein-Protein Interactions
Using protein mimics to understand and disrupt disease-related biomolecular interactions
ER Stress Response
Small molecules targeting cellular stress response mechanisms in cancer and immune disorders

The Team

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Lab News

Open Postdoctoral Position
We currently have an opening for a postdoctoral researcher in Organic/Medicinal Chemistry! Click here for more details: Organic postdoc ad
January 16, 2020
​Welcome Jen
The lab welcomes new postdoctoral researcher, Jennifer Rowe from Purdue University! 
December 20, 2020
​Welcome Taylor
​Welcome to new first year grad student, Taylor Gerrein!
December 20, 2020
​Welcome Ben
​​Welcome to new first year grad student, Ben Rajewski!
December 20, 2020
​Welcome Michael
​​Welcome to new first year grad student, Michael Montalvo Rivera!
November 4, 2019
New digs...
​Our brand new lab space is completed, and move-in is happening this week! Looking forward to an exciting next phase in McCourtney 255!
October 29, 2019
A trans-inducing Pip analogue
​Congrats to Evan, Chris, and Changwon on their recent synthesis of oxapipecolic acid, published in the Journal of Organic Chemistry!
May 15, 2019
Spatiotemporal control of IRE-1
​Check out our new paper in collaboration with the Hu lab in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry on prodrug strategies for inhibiting IRE-1! 
March 11, 2019
Yassin wins APS Travel Award
​Congratulations to Yassin Elbatrawi, who was the recipient of a 2019 APS travel award to attend this year's American Peptide Society Symposium in Monterrey!
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March 10, 2019
Yassin wins Ashford Fellowship
​Congratulations to Yassin Elbatrawi, who was the recipient of the Department of Chemistry's 2019 Ashford Doctoral Fellowship Martin. Way to go Yassin! 
March 10, 2019
4-Alkylideneproline synthesis
​Congratulations to Chris, Evan, and Justin, for their accepted paper in Arkivoc on synthetic studies toward the cytotoxic alkaloid eleganine A!  
March 10, 2019
Ben wins Martin Travel Award
​Congratulations to Ben Rathman, who was the recipient of a 2019 Martin travel award to present his research at this year's ACS meeting!
March 10, 2019
Khalilia wins Martin Travel Award
​Congratulations to Khalilia Tillet, who was the recipient of a 2019 Martin travel award to present her research at this year's ACS meeting!
October 5, 2018
Kyle advances to candidacy
​Congratulations to 3rd year graduate student Kyle Pedretty, who advanced to Ph.D. candidacy!
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March 10, 2019
Matt wins Martin Travel Award
​Congratulations to Matt Sarnowski, who was the recipient of a 2019 Martin travel award to present his research at this year's ACS meeting!
June 1, 2018
Welcome Xenia
The lab welcomes Xenia Sailors, a new undergraduate researcher. 

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June 1, 2018
Welcome Carlos
The lab welcomes our newest undergraduate researcher, Carlos Solanilla-Salinas.  
May 12, 2018
Poster awards
Congrats to Khalilia and Ben, who both received awards for their poster presentations at this years Florida ACS Meeting and Exposition. Way to go!
May 4, 2018
Farewell Justin
Good luck to postdoctoral researcher, Justin Goodwin, who is off to to a new job as Project Manger at Lonza.
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April 19, 2018
Chris wins Martin Travel Award
​Congratulations to Chris Cain, who was the recipient of a 2018 Martin travel award to present his research on synthetic efforts toward 4-alkylideneproline natural products.
April 19, 2018
Yassin wins Martin Travel Award
​Congratulations to Yassin, who was the recipient of a 2018 Martin travel award to present his research on the total synthesis of L-156,373. 
April 16, 2018
First synthesis of L-156,373
Congratulations to Yassin and Changwon for their paper on the total synthesis of the di-Piz-containing non-ribosomal peptide L-156,373! Keep an eye out for the asap version in Organic Letters.  
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April 13, 2018
Welcome Kamlesh
The lab welcomes our new postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Kamlesh Makwana. Kamlesh comes to us by way of the Indian Institute of Science & Education and Tufts University.
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March 26, 2018
Immunoglobulin M secretion drives tumor progression...
...and its blockage with B-I09 slows cancer. Our collaborative paper with the Hu lab is accepted in Cancer Immunology Research​!
March 26, 2018
Evan wins Wenzinger Award
​Congratulations to undergraduate researcher Evan Howard, winner of of the Department of Chemistry's 2018 George Wenzinger Memorial Scholarship. Way to go Evan!
March 24, 2018
Yassin wins 2nd place at Castle Conference
Congratulations to Yassin, whose oral presentation on the total synthesis of L-156,373 took 2nd place at this year's Castle Conference!
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March 21, 2018
Phosphorylation of Ser729 in IRE1 regulates its RNase function...
... and B-I09 blocks regulated IRE1 dependent decay of mRNA. Check out the details in a new paper in collaboration with the Hu lab, in the Journal of Cell Biology.
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March 21, 2018
Small molecule prophylaxis for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD)
​Check out our collaboration with the Xu lab just published in Blood Advances. Small molecule inhibition of ER stress response prevents GVHD in an animal model.
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March 17, 2018
Synthetic lethality of IRE1 inhibition and c-Myc overexpression in cancer 
​B-I09 confers synthetic lethality in Myc-driven cancers in vivo! Our collaborative paper with the Simon lab is now published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.  
March 9, 2018
Khalilia advances to candidacy
​Congratulations to 2nd year graduate student Khalilia Tillet, who advanced to Ph.D. candidacy!
Febrauary 17, 2018
Ben advances to candidacy
Congratulations to Ben Rathman, 2nd year grad student, who advanced to Ph.D. candidacy!
August 18, 2017
Covalently restricted N-amino peptides
​Our paper on the β-sheet propensity of various constrained N-amino peptides was accepted in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry. Great job Matt and Kyle!
August 1, 2017
NSF Grant
​The lab received a 3-year grant from the National Science foundation to  develop novel protein mimics based on N-amino-substituted peptides.
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June 1, 2017
Welcome Evan
The lab welcomes Evan Howard, our new undergraduate researcher working. Evan is working on the synthesis of 4-alkylideneproline natural products.
June 1, 2017
Welcome Megan
The lab welcomes Megan Navarro, our new undergraduate researcher. Megan is working on the synthesis of backbone-aminated peptidomimetics. 
May 1, 2017
ER stress response modulates dendritic cell survival
Our collaborative paper with the Janssens and Hu labs appeared as an Advance Online manuscript in Nature Cell Biology.
April 15, 2017
Matt wins APS Travel Award
​Congratulations to Matt Sarnowski, who was the recipient of a 2017 APS travel award to attend this year's American Peptide Society Symposium in Whistler, Canada!
January 20, 2017
Hot off the press...
​Matt's Angewandte Chemie paper is now online (Early View) and has been selected as a 'Hot Paper' by the journal's editorial staff!
January 13, 2017
N-amino peptides... "How to"
​Our paper on hydrazino acid and N-amino peptide synthesis was accepted in the Journal of Organic Chemistry. Way to go Changwon, Matt, and Yassin!
January 11, 2017
​β-sheets stabilized by backbone N-amination
Congratulations to Matt, Changwon, and Yassin for their recent Angewandte Chemie paper on the conformational effects of a new peptide backbone modification!  
December 7, 2016
Chris advances to candidacy
Congratulations to Chris Cain, 2nd year grad student, who advanced to Ph.D. candidacy!
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December 6, 2016
Matt advances to candidacy
Congratulations to Matt Sarnowski who advanced to Ph.D. candidacy!
October 26, 2016
Welcome Ben
​Welcome to new graduate student, Ben Rathman from the University of North Florida.
October 24, 2016
Welcome Khalilia
The lab welcomes new graduate student Khalilia Tillet from Murray State University.
October 18, 2016
Welcome Kyle
Welcome to new graduate student Kyle Pedretty, from the College of the Holy Cross.
August 5, 2016
Farewell Bomi
Goodbye to Bomi, our skilled 'oxaziridinator', who returns to South Korea after a 5-month internship in the lab.  Best of luck!
April 27, 2016
Yassin advances to candidacy
Congratulations to Yassin Elbatrawi, who advanced to Ph.D. candidacy!
April 6, 2016
Welcome Chris
The lab welcomes new graduate student Chris Cain, from Auburn Univeristy.
April 4, 2016
1st place poster
Congratulations to Matt for winning 1st place at the 14th Raymond Castle Student Research Conference for his poster entitled "Synthesis and conformational analysis of N-amino peptides"!
March 5, 2016
STING-ing cancer...
Our paper in collaboration with the Hu lab (Wistar Institute) on STING-mediated cancer cell apoptosis was published in Cancer Research!
January 11, 2016
Welcome Justin
Welcome to Dr. Justin Goodwin, our new postdoctoral researcher. Justin comes to us from the Aponick lab at the  University of Florida.
September 10, 2015
β-strands in stitches...
Our paper on tpd-based stitched β-strand mimics was accepted in Chemical Communications. Congratulations to ChangWon and Matt!
September 7, 2015
NIH Grant
The lab received an NIH R01 grant to study novel inhibitors of XBP-1s expression as antileukemic agents.
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September 2, 2015
Heterocyclic β-strand stabilizers
Our review on heterocyclic extended dipeptide surrogates is now in press. See the Publications page for details.
September 1, 2015
NIH grant
The lab was awarded a 2-year grant from the NIH in support of a medicinal chemistry campaign toward antagonists of IRE-1 RNase activity.