Ryan E. Looper
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
B.S. Western Washington University
Ph.D. Colorado State University
Research
Our research program emphasizes the importance of small molecule interactions within biological systems. New synthetic methodology drives the synthesis of natural products and fragment based small molecule collections. An ancillary, yet possibly more profound goal of this program is to arm our national screening infrastructure with skeletally intriguing small molecules. These collaborative efforts facilitate the discovery of new targets and strategies for the advancement of biomedical research. Initially, our synthetic achievements will be aimed at exploring post-translational arginine modifications in cell signaling. The recent implication of these events in a number of disease states (multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, glaucoma and tumorogenesis) encourages the preparation of biological tools and therapeutic leads. Projects poised to deliver antibiotic collections for the inhibition of prokaryotic protein synthesis will also be initiated. Molecules with purported rRNA binding interactions that are uncharacterized or non-overlapping with known sites of resistance will be targeted to advance our understanding of RNA’s binding topology.
References
1. Looper RE, Pizzirani D, Schreiber SL (2006) Macrocycloadditions leading to conformationally restricted small molecules. Organic Letters 8:2063-2066
2. Looper RE, Runnegar MT, Williams RM (2006) Syntheses of the cylindrospermopsin alkaloids and their toxicological evaluation. Tetrahedron 62:4549–4562
3. Looper RE, Runnegar MT, Williams RM (2005) Synthesis of the putative structure of 7-deoxycylindrospermopsin: C7-oxygenation is not required for the inhibition of protein synthesis. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 44:3879-3881
4. Looper RE, Williams RM (2004) A concise asymmetric synthesis of the marine hepatotoxin 7-epi-cylindrospermopsin. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 43:2930-2933 * (VIP paper)
5. Vyvyan JR, Loitz C, Looper RE, Mattingly CS, Peterson EA, Staben ST (2004) Synthesis of aromatic bisabolene natural products via palladium-catalyzed cross couplings of organozinc reagents. J. Org. Chem. 69:2461-2468
6. Looper RE, Williams RM (2001) Construction of cylindrospermopsin’s A ring via an intramolecular oxazinone-N-oxide dipolar cycloaddition. Tetrahedron Lett. 42:769-771
7. Vyvyan JR, Looper RE (2000) Total synthesis of (±)-heliannuol D, an allelochemical from Helianthus annuus. Tetrahedron Lett. 41:1151-1153
