Staff

STAFF

		Gary Sulikowski, Director Gary Sulikowski received a BS in chemistry from Wayne State University and a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. He was an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow at Yale University. His first faculty appointment was in the Department of Chemistry at Texas A&M University in 1991, where he was promoted to full professor in 2001. He joined the Vanderbilt Chemistry Department as Professor of Chemistry and member of the Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology in the 2004-2005 academic year. Dr. Sulikowski's research area is organic and bioorganic chemistry. His research interests are in the development of synthetic strategies and reactions, biomimetic syntheses and investigations into the biological properties of natural products. He has published over fifty research articles in the areas of natural products chemistry and biology.
		Kwangho Kim, Assistant Director Kim was born and raised in South Korea and received his B. A. and M.S. degrees in chemistry and polymer chemistry from Hanyang University. Prior to attending Ph.D. program, he worked in Daelim Industrial, a petrochemical company in Korea, as a senior research scientist for 7 years. In 1998, Kim moved to Japan and began graduate studies in chemical synthesis at Tokyo Institute of Technology. Under the direction of Professor Fumie Sato, he was involved in the development of novel synthetic methodologies and synthesis of biologically active compounds. In particular Kim developed novel chiral building blocks to construct a number of multifunctional chiral acyclic and cyclic compounds by using organotitanium reagents, and obtained his Ph.D. degree in 2001. For his research and education, received the Japanese Government Monbusho Scholarship and Sasagawa Scientific Research Grant from the Japan Science Society. From 2001-2004, Kim was a postdoctoral research associate in the laboratory of Professor Gary A. Sulikowski at Texas A&M University in college station, where he contributed to the total synthesis of hibarimicin B and congeners of a protein tyrosine kinase inhibitor. In 2004, Prof. Sulikowski moved his research group to Vanderbilt University where Kim was involved in the total synthesis of hibarimicin B, upenamide, and epothilone. In 2006, he joined the chemical synthesis core as a senior research specialist with an appointment as Research Assistant Professor of Chemistry. In 2011 he was promoted to Assistant Director of the Synthesis Core.
		Plamen Christov, Drug Discovery Scientist 1 Plamen Christov earned his PhD in Chemistry at Vanderbilt University. As a graduate student he worked on the synthesis of phosphoramidites for site-specific synthesis of various N5-alkyl-Fapy-dGuo oligonucleotides that result from genotoxic substances including chemotheraputic agents. He also worked on the bypass and incision of N5-alkyl-Fapy-dGuo lesions by DNA polymerases and DNA glycosylases, respectively. His research also involved the use of Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS3) to identify and quantify small molecules in complex mixtures. In addition, Plamen Christov developed a very sensitive LC-ESI-MS/MS method for sequencing and quantitating the replication bypass products of N5-alkyl-Fapy-dGuo lesions.
		Ian Romaine, Drug Discovery Scientist 1 Ian Received a BS from Lipscomb University and an MS from MTSU. During the time at MTSU he was responsible for making podophyllotoxin analogs. To further his graduate career, Ian earned his Ph.D. in the lab of Professor Gary Sulikowski at Vanderbilt University. Here he undertook the determination of absolute stereochemistry about the biaryl bond in the hibarimicins. This was accomplished through non-stereospecific biaryl coupling, then a novel deracemization to a single atropisomer. Ian recently joined the Synthesis Core as a Postdoctoral Fellow.

		Padma Portonovo, Project Consultant-Drug Discovery Padma Portonovo joined the VICB Chemical Synthesis Core in August of 2007. She earned her Ph.D. in the area of asymmetric synthesis under Prof. Franklin Davis at Temple University, PA, then worked as a postdoctoral Fellow in the labs of Madeleine Joullie at the University of Pennsylvania, PA. Padma joined Cambrex Pharmaceuticals as a research scientist trained as a cGMP process chemist where she worked on various pharmaceutical intermediates (API’s) and controlled substances and drafted a drug master file for various cGMP processes. Her current work at the Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology includes drafting research proposals for the current projects of the core lab, assisting in billing and overall needs of the lab.

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY GROUP

Larry Marnett
Ned Porter
Alex Waterson
Craig Lindsley
Jeff Johnston