School of Humanities and Sciences
Showing 21-23 of 23 Results
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Noah Burns
Associate Professor of Chemistry
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch in our group explores the boundaries of modern organic synthesis to enable the more rapid creation of the highest molecular complexity in a predictable and controllable fashion. We are particularly inspired by natural products not only because of their importance as synthetic targets but also due to their ability to serve as invaluable identifiers of unanswered scientific questions.
One major focus of our research is selective halogenation of organic molecules. Dihalogenation and halofunctionalization encompass some of the most fundamental transformations in our field, yet methods capable of accessing relevant halogenated motifs in a chemo-, regio-, and enantioselective fashion are lacking.
We are also interested in the practical total synthesis of natural products for which there is true impetus for their construction due to unanswered chemical, medicinal, biological, or biophysical questions. We are specifically engaged in the construction of unusual lipids with unanswered questions regarding their physical properties and for which synthesis offers a unique opportunity for study. -
Leah Bushin
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
BioLeah Bushin is a chemical biologist and natural products chemist working at the interface of primary and secondary metabolism and leverages these insights to discover and produce novel natural products.
The Bushin research group will investigate novel metabolic pathways, enzymes, and bioactive molecules across all kingdoms of life, intending to repurpose them to address challenges in human health and environmental sustainability. Current efforts will primarily center on developing strategies for the efficient microbial production of compounds and materials at scale, as well as high-throughput approaches for engineering enzymes to perform synthetic reactions. More broadly, as the group designs and refines bioproduction platforms, they hope to deepen their fundamental understanding of cellular metabolism. With genome sequencing revealing an immense reservoir of untapped biosynthetic potential, their work aims to uncover and harness nature’s chemical diversity for drug discovery and synthetic derivatization.
