James Martinez

As a member of the Hanson research group, my research focuses on streamlining syntheses of bioactive molecules – specifically, macrocyclic natural products with electrophilic warheads. Many of these compounds possess antibiotic, antiviral, anticancer, and other properties that make them pharmaceutically important. Their large size, however, makes their synthetic accessibility difficult, which in turn hinders the formation of diverse libraries of these bioactive compounds. Thus, my research uses a diversity-oriented approach to synthesize a large array of natural product analogs to investigate how structural characteristics at the warhead affect their reactivity. To accomplish this, carbon-, sulfur-, and phosphorus-based electrophilic warhead analogs will be studied with kinetics and in-vitro experiments to further our understanding of the interactions of these molecules with the human proteome. In addition to the overall synthesis, new iron-based, magnetic scavenging reagents are being developed to selectively remove and recycle excess reagents used during the synthesis. These magnetic scavengers will allow for quick, efficient, and eco-friendly purification of products, facilitating the synthesis of macrocycles on a large scale.