RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT Postdoctoral Fellow 2011-2012
Mentor: Professor Kuberan (Kuby) Balagurunathan

  • Chemo-enzymatic synthesis of heparin-like oligo-and polysaccharides

  • Purification of oligo- and polysaccharides and by gel filtration, anion exchange and HPLC and structureanalysis by NMR, HPLC and LC-MS

  • Synthesizing fluorescent compounds and conjugation to oligosaccharides

  • Radio labeling (S-35 and H-3) for carbohydrate structure analysis and cell based assays

  • Ordering lab instrumentration and chemicals and lab waste management

University of Georgia, Athens, GA Research Associate May 2010-Dec 2010

  • Developed an orthogonal amine protection strategies for installation of N-sulfate and N-acetate in heparan sulfate oligosaccharides

  • Contributed to the expansion of synthetic heparan sulfate oligosaccharide library for developing GAG-based microarrays for high throughput screening

University of Georgia, Athens, GA Graduate Research Assistant, Ph. D. Candidate 2005-May 2010

Advisor: Professor Geert-Jan Boons

  • Designed and executed new synthetic routes, optimized conditions for parallel combinatorial synthesis

  • of a diverse library of heparan sulfate oligosaccharides

  • Explored linker technologies for conjugating oligosaccharides to carrier proteins and microarrays

  • •nalyzed structures of heparan sulfate oligosaccharides using multidimensional NMR techniques and

  • mass spectrometric techniques

  • Conducted extensive purification of heparan sulfate oligosaccharides using chromatographic

  • techniques such as HPLC, preparative reverse phase, iatrobeads, gel filtration, vacuum flash, thin layer

  • and column chromatography

  • Contributed to preparing manuscripts for journal publications and filing patent applications

  • Delivered a novel library of heparan sulfate oligosaccharides for evaluation as inhibitors of Alzheimer’s BACE-1 enzyme o This research led to identification of lead compounds for BACE-1 inhibition for application to Alzheimer’s therapeutics

  • Coordinated with multi-disciplinary team of biochemistry and mass spectrometry research groups for biological assays and for mass spectrometric evaluation of the synthetic heparan sulfates

  • •Trained one junior graduate student in carbohydrate synthesis

  • •Maintained responsibility of ordering lab supplies for a 30-member research group

New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM Graduate Assistant, M.S Student 2000-2003

Advisor: Professor Stephen D. Starnes

  • Synthesized β,β'-disubstituted porphyrin-based anion receptors for chloride, bromide, fluoride, phosphate and hydrogen sulfate anions and studied their anion binding characteristics by NMR and UV-Vis spectroscopy

  • Trained two undergraduate and one high school research student during Master’s research

Domex Information Technologies Chemical Patents Editor 1999- 2000
(Contract research organization for Derwent World Patent Index, U.K)

Edited chemical and pharmaceutical patents for online publication and mentored junior editors in preparing abstracts for chemical patents