Chemistry and Biochemistry 2011
Area or Doctoral Study: Chemistry
Undergraduate Institute: Brooklyn College
Research Advisor:Katherine Seley-Radtke, Ph.D.
Current: Assistant Professor at Baruch College
Description of Research
The research that I conduct in the Seley-Radtke lab involves systematic modifications to the purine scaffold for the purpose of designing potent medicinal agents. The first project describes the synthesis of a series of thieno-expanded purine 2′-deoxy analogues that were designed to interrogate nucleic acid structure and function as well as to potentially provide the framework for novel biological agents. The second project is directly related to the expanded analogues, and focuses on a group of 2¢-deoxy flexible nucleoside analogues called “fleximers”. This new class of unique shape-modified nucleosides introduces flexibility to the heteroaromatic purine ring by “splitting” it into its two components (for example, an imidazole and pyrimidine ring). The third project highlights the use of thieno-expanded purine ribose derivatives, in the nucleoside as well as the triphosphate forms, as potential inhibitors of the Hepatitis C virus.