Research Interests
Our research focuses on unraveling the the molecular details of complex natural product pathways. Although our emphasis is currently on peptide-based natural products, we maintain a broader interest in the natural product biosynthetic pathways and investigate any interesting pathways.
Our laboratory conducts extensive investigations into enzyme-catalyzed transformations that are integral to natural product biosynthetic pathways. Bacteria generally cluster genes that encode biosynthetic pathways in clusters. In some cases, the end product of the pathway is known. In others, nothing is known about the natural products that are produced. We employ a variety of techniques to understand the molecular-level details of biosynthetic pathways.
The overall goals of our research are twofold. First, our research leads to the discovery of new enzymatic transformations and natural products. Second, we are always interested in leveraging our understanding of biosynthetic pathways towards developing tools that can be employed in drug discovery and chemical biology.
Interested in our research, check out our publications. Full texts can be accessed here.
We are currently funded by NIH and will be taking on rotators and students. If you are interested, please come and let me show you around the lab and talk about projects.
Professional Experience
B.S., California State University-Los Angeles, 1992
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1998
NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Michigan
- 2003 - 2009: University of Arizona | Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
- 2009 - 2015: University of Arizona | Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry*
- * The Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics (BMB) and Chemistry merged in 2009 to form the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (CBC).
- 2015 - Present: University of Utah | Professor, Department of Chemistry
- 2019 - 2021: University of Utah | Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies, Department of Chemistry
- 2021 - Present: University of Utah | Associate Dean for Student Affairs, College of Science