EDUCATION:

• Ph. D. The Johns Hopkins University
• Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT
• Postdoctoral Associate, University of Hawaii.

RESEARCH INTEREST:

• Characterization of Odour-Active Compounds in Aged Rum.

  Approximately half of all current drugs are derived from natural products, demonstrating their potential for drug discovery. The structural diversity and biological activity displayed by natural products may be attributed to a long evolutionary selection process. In our quest for small molecules with biomedical utility for various disease indications we mainly investigate natural products. In particular, largely unexplored marine organisms such as marine sponges and gorgonian corals are evaluated as sources of bioactive secondary metabolites. A variety of phenotypic and target-based assays is being implemented in an evolving screening program. Active compounds are isolated using bioassay- or NMR-guided fractionation and their structures are determined using a combination of spectroscopic techniques, predominantly NMR.

PUBLICATIONS: