Organic Chemistry
Description
Organic chemistry at Penn has broad-based expertise in traditional areas such as complex natural product synthesis, synthetic methodology, photochemistry, and physical organic chemistry, as well as contemporary topics such as asymmetric catalysis, organometallics, materials, bio-organic, and computational chemistry. Organic chemists in the department develop new catalysts, enzyme inhibitors, and pharmaceutical agents, and design biocompatible materials based on polymers and biological building blocks, such as peptides and DNA. The synthesis of organic molecules with designed functions is a common theme.
Cycolomarin is a novel cyclic peptide isolated from a marine actinomycete
collected in a sediment sample from Mission Bay, California. Cyclommarin A
has demonstrated potent biological activity against a panel of human cancer
cells. It is also a powerful anti-inflammatory agent. Joullie Group
