In order to access complex molecules of therapeutic value, chemical synthesis continues to develop new and creative methods to access natural products. In modern total syntheses, much emphasis is placed on the economies of synthesis: atom, redox and step economy. Our group is committed to enabling medicinal chemistry by devising concise syntheses of natural products using traditional organic synthesis in combination with enzyme catalysis. By combining organic chemistry with enzyme transformations, our group seeks to develop concise chemoenzymatic syntheses of natural products.

Macrocyclic peptides have unique biological properties including the ability to modulate protein-protein interactions and enhanced membrane permeability. Methods for achieving amino acid selective cyclization found in natural products are significantly underdeveloped, oftentimes reliant on pre-functionalization of amino acid residues prior to peptide assembly. A major research focus of our group is the development of the chemical posttranslational modification (cPTM), a chemical reaction that selectively modifies specific amino acids to produce modified amino acids and macrocycles found in peptide natural products.