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Synthetic Organic and Medicinal Chemistry at the Biomedical Interface

Discovery and development of new and potent anticancer agents, antibacterial agents, anti-inflammatory agents, and various enzyme inhibitors are the major research interests in Professor Ojima's laboratory. Integration of all relevant chemistry and biological tools, including computational biology (docking, in silico screening, molecular dynamics), chemical biology (protein expression, enzyme assays, fluorescence labeling), cell biology (cell culture, cytotoxicity assay, fluorescent confocal microscopy, flow cytometry, transmission and scanning electron microscopy), has successfully been realized in this program. Naturally, this research program is promoted in close collaboration with cell biologists, oncologists, microbiologist, pharmacologists, hematologists, toxicologists, etc., as well as the  Division of Laboratory Animals Resources for in vivo efficacy evaluations. The Ojima Laboratory has also been exploring and developing new synthetic methodologies, especially based on catalytic organic transformations, including enantioselective processes, cyclohydrocarbonylations and higher order cycloadditions and carbocyclizations, which provide the basis for the efficient syntheses of biologically active substances of medicinal interest, such as those anticancer and antibacterial agents mentioned above.