Ph.D., State University of New York-Buffalo Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry.
Folic acid is a key vitamin in human nutrition.
Recent research has involved the synthesis of several fluoro- and phosphoamino acids and their incorporation into folates and antifolate drugs. We have extended our phosphapeptide research mentioned above to the development of new inhibitors of TSH biosynthesis as possible anti-trypanosomal drugs. Recent research has focused on the use of larger peptides and proteins as substrates and has led to extensive studies with invertase-derived peptides of varying length. Current research also involves the synthesis of a variety of substrate and inhibitors designed to answer specific mechanistic questions. As in the research with the folate polyglutamates and trypanothione, the goal here is to understand the mechanism of this reaction in sufficient detail that it will be feasible to design and synthesize potent and specific inhibitors for use in the study of cellular glycoprotein biosynthesis.