Research Interest My research interest is primarily the design, synthesis, and investigation of the antiviral and antimalarial properties of modified nucleosides. Nucleosides are the building blocks of nucleic acids: DNA and RNA. Nucleosides are also involved in numerous cellular processes such as the energetics of metabolism (e.g ATP), catalysis (as cofactors), signal transduction, and biochemical reactions. Because nucleosides are ubiquitous in biological systems, structural modification of the natural nucleosides is expected to yield derivatives with interesting biological properties (Anitviral, Antitumor, antimalarial etc.). In fact, the majority of drugs used to treat viral infections such as HBV, HIV, herpes etc. are modified nucleosides. In my lab, we design and synthesize novel modified nucleosides in an effort to discover derivatives with desirable antiviral and antimalarial properties.
