Professor John K. Snyder

Associate Professor of Chemistry

The Discovery of New Synthetic Methodology for the Development of Biologically Active Small Molecule Libraries – Professor John Snyder, Dept. of Chemistry, Organic Chemistry

The discovery of new drug candidates and biological probes begins with the discovery of new chemistry, leading to new compounds of unusual structure, rich in stereochemistry, that go beyond what nature can manufacture. In several projects our group focuses on the discovery of new chemistries for the synthesis of natural product-like scaffolds that can be exploited in the preparation of small molecule libraries. An example is the preparation of a series of tetrahydro-1,6-naphthyridines such as 1 which have shown anti-tuberculoid activity. Another series of heterocycles represented by 2 was discovered to be active against hepatitis C virus. Other projects begin with readily available natural products as scaffolds for remodellig to new chemotypes sich as 3. Reseachers in our group develop new organic synthetic methodology for the discovery of new biological active compounds. In the course of this research, the scope of the chemistry will be expanded with a greater variety of co-reactants to create a small molecule library. Once prepared, these libraries will be submitted for bioactivity screening through various biological collaborators.

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