COBRE
Discovery of Chemical Probes and Therapeutic Leads
An NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence
COBRE 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
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Four NIH funded COBRE ‘graduates’ (D. Watson; M. Watson; Lyman; Grimes)
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Five NIH R01 awards (D. Watson; M. Watson; Lyman; Chain; Wei)
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NIH U01 (Grimes
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Three NSF grants (D. Watson; M. Watson; Chain)
EARLY CAREER AWARDS to PROJECT LEADERS and HIRES
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Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (Grimes)
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Two Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellows (Grimes, Rosenthal)
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Two Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences (A. Kloxin, Grimes)
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Two Cottrell Research Scholars by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (D. Watson, Grimes)
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Inter-American Photochemical Society Young Investigator Award (Rosenthal)
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Five NSF Faculty Early Career Development Awards (D. Watson, M. Watson, Grimes, Rosenthal, Kloxin)
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American Chemical Society WCC Rising Star Award (M. Watson)
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ACS Infectious Diseases Young Investigator (Grimes)
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Dreyfus Foundation Environmental Chemistry Mentor (Rosenthal)
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Oak Ridge Associated Universities Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award (Rosenthal)
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ACS Inorganic Chemistry Undergraduate Research Mentor Award (Rosenthal)
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Komen Career Catalyst Research Award (Kloxin)
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Mitzutani Glycoscience Award (Grimes)
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NIH K01 Award (Yien)
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NIH R03 Award (Yien)
AWARDS to PILOT PROJECT INVESTIGATORS
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ACS Polymer Materials Science & Engineering Young Investigator (C. Kloxin)
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NSF CAREER Award (Neunuebel)
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Dept. of Energy Young Investigator (Gundlach)
Project Leaders
Project 1. In vitro neural disease models for high throughput screening
April Kloxin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Project 2. Development and use of peptide probes to investigate the mitochondrial ClpXP protease
Karl Schmitz, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences
Yvette Yien, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences
Project 3. Molecularly-defined porous nanoparticle drug carriers for pulmonary antimicrobial therapeutics
Catherine Fromen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Eric Bloch, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Phase I COBRE “graduates”
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 I COBRE hires
During 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 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 Jarmillo-Lambert. Molecular mechanisms of Topoisomerase II regulation in meiotic chromosome segregation
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