Research Statement

Dr. Yuan’s laboratory focuses on three major research areas: development of novel chemical transformation, natural product synthesis and using chemical tools to address the unmet medical needs. Though considered as a mature science, the synthesis of natural product and pharmacophore remains unsatisfactory in terms of the overall atom-, step- and cost-economy. Dr. Yuan’s lab dedicates their efforts to develop efficient methodologies to enable efficient practical scale synthesis of chemical entities that have important biological activities. Integration of the group’s synthetic strength and carefully selected molecular targets has led to the discovery of several antimalarial compounds with sub-nanomolar potency.