COBRE Discovery of Chemical Probes and Therapeutic Leads
an NIH Center of Biomedical Research ExcellenceCOBRE Team
Our COBRE faculty have been recognized with the nation’s most competitive awards to young scientists
Accomplishments Include:
- 80 COBRE supported publications by junior investigators
(~25% in IF 11.0+ journals, ~50% in IF 5.0+ journals) - >60 additional publications cite core facilities
- COBRE investigators gave nearly 300 invited talks
- Five junior investigators have graduated to independent status
- 6 NIH grants (5 R01s, 1 U01) were awarded to four junior investigators and two COBRE hires
- Recognized through >20 national awards, including
- Sloan Foundation Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (2)
- Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences (2)
- Cottrell Research Scholar by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement
- Inter-American Photochemical Society Young Investigator Award
- NSF Career awards (5)
- American Chemical Society Rising Star Award
- Dreyfus Foundation Environmental Chemistry Mentor
- Oak Ridge Associated Universities Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award
- ACS Inorganic Chemistry Undergraduate Research Mentor Award
- Komen Career Catalyst Research Award
Awards to Phase I Investigators
Phase I Investigators: (left to right): April Kloxin, Joel Rosenthal, Catherine Leimkuhler Grimes, Joe Fox, Ed Lyman, Mary Watson, BJ Chain (COBRE hire), Don Watson. Not pictured are Shuo Wei (COBRE hire), Karl Schmitz and Yvette Yien (Replacement Project Investigators).
FUNDING ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- Four NIH funded COBRE ‘graduates’ (D. Watson; M. Watson; Lyman; Grimes)
- Five NIH R01 awards (D. Watson; M. Watson; Lyman; Chain; Wei)
- NIH U01 (Grimes
- Three NSF grants (D. Watson; M. Watson; Chain)
EARLY CAREER AWARDS to PROJECT LEADERS and HIRES
- Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (Grimes)
- Two Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellows (Grimes, Rosenthal)
- Two Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences (A. Kloxin, Grimes)
- Two Cottrell Research Scholars by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (D. Watson, Grimes)
- Inter-American Photochemical Society Young Investigator Award (Rosenthal)
- Five NSF Faculty Early Career Development Awards (D. Watson, M. Watson, Grimes, Rosenthal, Kloxin)
- American Chemical Society WCC Rising Star Award (M. Watson)
- ACS Infectious Diseases Young Investigator (Grimes)
- Dreyfus Foundation Environmental Chemistry Mentor (Rosenthal)
- Oak Ridge Associated Universities Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award (Rosenthal)
- ACS Inorganic Chemistry Undergraduate Research Mentor Award (Rosenthal)
- Komen Career Catalyst Research Award (Kloxin)
- Mitzutani Glycoscience Award (Grimes)
- NIH K01 Award (Yien)
- NIH R03 Award (Yien)
AWARDS to PILOT PROJECT INVESTIGATORS
- ACS Polymer Materials Science & Engineering Young Investigator (C. Kloxin)
- NSF CAREER Award (Neunuebel)
- Dept. of Energy Young Investigator (Gundlach)
Current Project Leaders
Maria Ramona Neunuebel, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences
Molecular mechanisms supporting bacterial survival within immune cells
Phase I COBRE “graduates”
April Kloxin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
In vitro neural disease models for high throughput screening
Catherine Leimkuhler Grimes, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry
The Leimkuhler Grimes Group is using carbohydrate chemistry and bacterial cell wall engineering to aid in the understanding of inflammatory disease.
Don Watson, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Organic Chemistry
Don Watson’s group explores new transition metal catalysts for organic chemistry. We are developing new reactions for use in both organic synthesis and library development for medicinal chemistry.
Mary Watson, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Organic Chemistry
Mary Watson’s group uses transition metal catalysts to develop enantioselective and stereospecific reactions. Their goal is greater efficiency and novel bond constructions in the synthesis of chiral drug-like molecules.
Joel Rosenthal, PhD., Associate Professor, Inorganic Chemistry
The Rosenthal Group is developing electrochemical techniques for high throughput screening to discover new drug leads and is developing new approaches to photodynamic therapy.
Ed Lyman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Physics and Physical Chemistry
Drug discovery is a long and costly process. The Lyman Group is developing computational methods that will enable medicinal chemists to streamline the drug discovery process.
Phase II COBRE “graduates”
Catherine Fromen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Surface-functionalized nanoparticle adjuvants for pulmonary immune modulation
Jeffrey Mugridge, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Molecular mechanisms supporting bacterial survival within immune cells
Aditya Kunjapur, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
Designing real-time bacterial reporting of enzymes secreted by mammalian cells
Juan Perilla, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Elucidating the molecular mechanisms of small-molecule disruption of viral replication machinery
Karl Schmitz, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences
Dissection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Clp protease assembly, activity and regulation
COBRE hires
Phase I, the center supported the hire of three faculty.
William Chain. Studies the area of natural products synthesis and medicinal chemistry.
Shuo Wei. Studies the regulation of cell signaling by extracellular metalloproteinases in development and disease, and he is PI of an active R01 from NIGMS.
Karl Schmitz. Studies Clp protease function and regulation with small molecule probes
Phase II Hires
Ariel Alperstein. is focused on developing new ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy techniques for investigating biological systems on the sub-micron scale
Marco Messina is focused on the creation of functional macromolecular materials for probing biological systems
Phase I Pilot Project Awardees
Lars Gundlach. Ultrafast spectroscopy of photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy
Arun Kumar. Development of a nanoparticle-based theranostic agent to treat IBC metastasis
Eric Bloch. Design of metal-organic cage molecules for aerosol pulmonary theranostics
Catherine Fromen. Design of metal-organic cage molecules for aerosol pulmonary theranostics
Ramona Neunuebel. Molecular mechanisms supporting bacterial survival within immune cells
Christopher Kloxin. CNA aptamer screening library for TNF binding
William Chain. Englerin A – A future human chemotherapeutic
Aimee Jaramillo-Lambert. Molecular mechanisms of Topoisomerase II regulation in meiotic chromosome segregation
Edward Lyman. Measuring and simulating adenosine receptor ligand unbinding kinetics
Phase II Pilot Project Awardees
Jeremy Bird. Developing riboCapZyme-seq, a new method for the detection and quantitation of metabolite capping on translated RNAs
Jodi Hadden-Perilla. Elucidating and flipping the conformational switch that regulates hepatitis B virus capsid assembly
Alexei Kananenka. Computational modeling of radiolabeled nanomaterials for cancer therapy
Aditya Kunjapur. Investigating biosynthesis of a photolabile amino acid for polypeptide control
Molly Sutherland. Development of CcsBA, the holocytorchrome c synthase, as a novel antibiotic target
Emil Hernandez-Pagan.Tailored nanocrystals for NIR generation of ROS for photodynamic therapy
Ariel Alperstein. Investigating the effect of microplastics on chaperone protein structure and function
Austin Keeler. Deciphering the molecular landscape of neurotrophin driven lineage decisions by neural mass cytometry
Marco Messina. 3-Dimensional Cluster-Based Materials for Multimodal Bioimaging of Reactive Oxygen/Nitrogen Species
Administrative Supplements
Current
Administrative Supplement for Research on Women’s Health
Jodi Hadden-Perilla. Molecular dynamics of the human papillomavirus type 16 capsid to identify novel drug targets
Administrative Supplement for Equipment
$248,183 to purchase an upgrade of an Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectrometer
Administrative Supplement to fund Team Science Development Projects
Shuo Wei, Karl Schmitz and Sigrid Langhans. Development of probes and inhibitors for ADAM9.
Completed
Administrative Supplement for Research on Women’s Health
William Chain. Icetexan Natural Products as New Lead Compounds Toward Breast Cancer Chemotherapeutics
Administrative Supplement for Alzheimer’s-Focused Research
Laure Kayser. High sensitivity electrochemical detection of amyloid-β aggregates to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease
Administrative Supplement for Equipment
$250,000 to purchase a Waters Xevo TM TQ-S micro mass spectrometer UPLC system
Administrative Supplement for Equipment
$240,446 to purchase a 5mm Bruker Prodigy CryoProbe
COBRE Staff
Dawn Yasik, COBRE Administrative Coordinator
dyasik@udel.edu
External Advisory Committee
Paramjit Arora, Ph.D., Professor, New York University
Peter Chien, Ph.D., Professor, University of Massachusetts
Andrew Combs, Ph.D., Executive Vice President and Head of Chemistry, Prelude Therapeutics
Spencer Dreher, Ph.D., Research Fellow and Head of the Process Chemistry Automation Lab, Merck Process
Klaus Gawrisch, Ph.D., Senior Investigator and Chief of the Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics, NIAAA, NIH
Karl Scheidt, Ph.D., Professor and Director of the Northwestern Center for Molecular Innovation and Drug Discovery, Northwestern University
Stefan Serafianos, Ph.D., Professor, Emory University
Associate Directors in Medicinal Chemistry and Translational Research
Peter Bernstein, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at University of Delaware, Principal, PhaRmaB, LLC
John Koh, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Associate Director, Delaware Biotechnology Institute
Melinda Duncan, Ph.D., Professor, Biological Sciences, Professor, Animal and Food Sciences