Research Interests
The Smith Group focuses on three principal research areas: (A) development of innovative synthetic methods having wide application; (B) validation of the synthetic tactics for the rapid construction of architecturally complex natural and unnatural products possession significant bio-regulatory properties, and (C) novel bioorganic/medicinal chemistry programs, including programs on neurodegeneration (Alzheimer’s and tauopathologies), in collaboration with Professors Virginia Lee and John Trojanowski (University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine), studies to inhibit both HIV-1 cellular entry and propagation in infected cells (an NIH funded Program Project, involving colleagues at Harvard, Columbia, Drexel, Yale, and Montreal: see Smith News), as well as projects on peptide/protein folding with the late Professor Robin Hochstrasser and now with Feng Gai (Penn Chemistry). In each of the collaborative programs, Smith and his students exploit the power of “state-of-the-art” organic synthesis to provide solutions to biomedical programs of importance for the improvement of human health.