MedChemComm

PROFILE

Cite this: Med. Chem. Commun.,

2017, 8, 696

DOI: 10.1039/c7md90013a

rsc.li/medchemcomm

Contributors to ‘New Talent: Americas’

This Profile article offers a shortintroduction to the researchers whohave contributed to this themed issueon the talent emerging from theAmericas and the excellent work thatis being done by them. We would liketo congratulate them and their teamson their achievements to date andhope they have continued successin the future as they continue theircareers within the medicinal chemistryfield.

Kyle J. EastmanKyle was born in 1977 and raised

in western Massachusetts. He receiveda BS degree in chemistry at MessiahCollege in 2000. He earned a PhD insynthetic organic chemistry at ThePennsylvania State University in StateCollege, PA, with Professor KenFeldman in 2006. Kyle then com-pleted a two year post-doctoral ap-pointment in the laboratories of Pro-fessor Phil Baran at The Scripps

Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. In2008, he was hired as a medicinalchemist in virology chemistry atBristol-Myers Squibb in Wallingford,CT. Kyle has spent the last eightyears working in the area of infec-tious disease, more specifically, de-signing inhibitors of both HCV andHIV.

Kim HuardKim Huard was born in Canada,

in 1979. She graduated from theUniversité de Montréal with a PhDin organic chemistry in 2008 andspent two years as a postdoctoral fel-low at the University of California, Ir-vine. Kim joined Pfizer in 2010 as amedicinal chemist. Since 2012, shehas been leading teams on variousdrug discovery programs in the car-diovascular and metabolic disease re-search unit located in Cambridge,Massachusetts. Her work involvesmodulating different types of biologi-

cal targets with small molecules aswell as targeting specific compounddisposition such as liver selective orbrain penetrant agents. In her currentrole at Pfizer, Kim works atestablishing collaborations to identifynew exploratory projects and develop-ing them into clinical candidates.

Robert W. HuigensRobert W. Huigens III was born

in the United States of America, in1979. He received his PhD inChemistry from North Carolina StateUniversity under the guidance ofProfessor Christian Melander in2009. Rob then became an Ameri-can Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fel-low at the University of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign where he workedin Professor Paul Hergenrother'slab. In 2013, Rob began his inde-pendent career at the University ofFlorida as an assistant professor ofmedicinal chemistry. Since that

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time, Rob has been the recipientof Young Investigator Awards fromthe American Chemical Society (Divi-sion of Medicinal Chemistry) andthe Center for Biofilm Engineering(Montana State University) for hisgroup's work on developing bacterialbiofilm-eradicating agents againsthuman pathogenic bacteria. Beyondhis group's efforts in the anti-bacterial arena, the Huigens lab isdeveloping a unique ring distortionstrategy to rapidly generate complexand diverse small molecules fromindole alkaloids. This work aims todrive the discovery of new biologi-cally active small molecules fordrug discovery and chemical biol-ogy. In addition to his researchprogram, Rob was recently awardedthe 2016–2017 College of PharmacyTeacher of the Year at the Univer-sity of Florida.

David MarcouxDavid Marcoux was born in the

province of Quebec in Canada, in1983. He received his BSc inChemistry in 2005 before earninghis PhD in organic chemistry from theUniversité de Montréal in 2009.There, he worked under the guid-ance of Prof. Andre B. Charette onthe stereoselective formation ofcyclopropanes. After a postdoctoralstay at Harvard University in thegroup of Prof. David A. Evans, Da-vid joined Bristol-Myers Squibb inPrinceton, NJ, where he is currently

a Senior Research Investigator. Hiscurrent research interests are syn-thetic organic chemistry as well asmedicinal chemistry in the area ofimmunology and immuno-oncology.

Jasmina MarjanovicJasmina Marjanovic was born in

Croatia, in 1979. She received herPhD in Organic Chemistry fromThe University of Chicago in 2010,following which she completed herpostdoctoral training in ChemicalBiology in David Liu's group atHarvard working on superchargedproteins for drug delivery. In 2012she joined AbbVie as a Senior Sci-entist where she is currently partof the Chemical Biology researchgroup. Her current research inter-ests lie in use of bioorthogonaltechniques for target engagementand identification.

Ryan Moslin

Ryan Moslin received his BSc inChemistry from the University ofBritish Columbia (UBC) in 2001,and his PhD in Organic Chemistryfrom the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology (MIT) in 2006. He com-pleted his postdoctoral research,also at MIT, in applied chemicalsynthesis in 2010. Since 2010 hehas worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb(BMS) as a researcher in drug dis-covery. His current research inter-ests lie in the allosteric modulationof kinases, the identification of newprotein targets within the immunesystem for application to immuno-oncology and autoimmune disease,as well as the design and synthesisof novel drug molecules.

Julio C. PastreJulio C. Pastre was born in Brazil

in 1979. He obtained his PhD in2009 under the guidance of ProfessorCarlos Roque D. Correia at the StateUniversity of Campinas – UNICAMP.This was followed by a brief one-yearspell working as a process chemist atRhodia. He then spent three years asa postdoctoral researcher at UNICAMPwith Professor Ronaldo A. Pilli andjoined the group of Professor StevenV. Ley at the University of Cambridgeas a Postdoctoral Research Associate.Since 2014, he is working as an As-sistant Professor at UNICAMP, andhis general areas of interest focuseson the development of new syntheticmethods in batch and continuous

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flow conditions for the synthesis ofnatural products, new materials, drugsand new drug candidates.

Martin PetterssonMartin Pettersson was born in Karl-

stad, Sweden in 1974. He received hisPhD in organic chemistry from theUniversity of Texas at Austin in 2007under the direction of Professor Ste-phen F. Martin. He then joined PfizerWorldwide Research and Developmentas a Senior Scientist, and he is cur-rently an Associate Research Fellow inthe Neuroscience and Pain MedicinalChemistry group in Cambridge, MA.At Pfizer he has made significant con-tributions as a chemistry team leaderfor programs such as Gamma Sec-retase Modulators for Alzheimer's dis-ease that is now in clinical develop-ment. His current research interestsinclude medicinal chemistry targetingneurodegenerative diseases, property-based design strategies, and pheno-typic drug discovery.

Amedea B. Seabra

Amedea B. Seabra holds a diplomadegree in Chemistry from the Univer-sity of São Paulo (USP). She finishedher PhD at Chemistry Institute, StateUniversity of Campinas (UNICAMP) in2006. Thereafter, she worked as a Re-search Fellow at UNICAMP (2006–2008), and she took postdoctoralstudies at the Chemistry and Bio-chemistry Department, Concordia Uni-versity in Montreal, Canada (2008–2010). She is a professor atUniversidade Federal do ABC(UFABC). Her present research is fo-cused on the preparation, characteri-zation and evaluation of the cytotoxic-ity of nitric oxide-releasing polymericand metallic nanomaterials for bio-medical and agricultural applications.

Mohammad R. SeyedsayamdostMohammad R. Seyedsayamdost was

born in Iran and grew up in Germanybefore entering Brandeis University forhis undergraduate studies. Heobtained a PhD in Chemistry from theMassachusetts Institute of Technol-ogy and subsequently conductedpostdoctoral studies at Harvard Medi-cal School. In 2013, he joinedPrinceton University, where he is cur-rently assistant professor of chemistryand molecular biology with additionalappointments in the Princeton Envi-ronmental Institute and the WoodrowWilson School. His research groupcombines tools from several disci-plines to interrogate the chemistryand biology underlying microbial sec-ondary metabolites. These include im-plementation of new discoverymethods as well as functional and

biosynthetic investigations on second-ary metabolites, with a focus on themechanisms of metalloenzymes thatcatalyze difficult transformations.

Eufrânio N. da Silva JúniorEufrânio N. da Silva Júnior was born

in Brazil in 1982. He received his degreein Chemistry from the Catholic Univer-sity of Brasília (UCB). In 2007, he com-pleted his MSc at the Fluminense Fed-eral University (UFF) in OrganicChemistry, and in 2009, he concludedhis PhD in Chemistry at the Universityof Brasilia (UnB), Brazil. In 2010, he be-came Professor of Organic Chemistry atthe Federal University of Minas Gerais(UFMG). His current research interestsare: C–H activation reactions, asymmet-ric organocatalysis, mechanistic investi-gations, and the synthesis of heterocy-clic and naphthoquinoidal bioactivecompounds. He is also interested inobtaining fluorescent substances for thestudy of their pharmacological andDNA-binding properties.

Brian Sparling

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Brian was born in Florida, USA in1985. He earned his BS in Chemistry atthe Massachusetts Institute of Technol-ogy (USA) in 2008 prior to receiving hisPhD in Chemistry from Harvard Univer-sity (USA) in 2013 under the direction ofProf. Matthew Shair, where he accom-plished an enantioselective total synthe-sis of the anti-depressant hyperforinamenable to analog synthesis. Sincethen, he has been a member of the De-partment of Medicinal Chemistry atAmgen in Cambridge, MA, USA, wherehis work has focused on the advance-ment of neuroscience programs. Begin-ning in 2015, he has led Amgen's MedChem Green Chemistry Team and is amember of the American Chemical Soci-

ety Green Chemistry Institute MedicinalChemistry Roundtable.

Hua Xu

Hua Xu was born in China in1981. He received his PhD inChemistry from Stony Brook Univer-sity in the United States in2009. After conducting his post-doctoral research at Albert Ein-stein College of Medicine, hejoined Pfizer as a chemical biolo-gist in 2013, and has been pro-moted to principal scientist since2016. He received ACS Young In-vestigator Award in 2016. His cur-rent research interests are usingchemical tools and technologies toinvestigate mode of action ofdrugs and understand drug occu-pancy in physiologically relevantsystems.

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