Featured Hergenrother Group Member
James Heeres graduated from UIUC in May 2010 with a PhD in Biochemistry. While in the Hergenrother lab, James developed a novel technology for the identification of compounds that disrupt protein-DNA interactions, and recently modified this technology to detect protein-protein interactions as well . He is also the author of a review on caspase-independent cell death, and one on the use of biosensor technology in high-throughput screening. James also presented his work at the 2008 Bioorganic Gordon Research Conference in New Hampshire and is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Prof. Mel Feany at Harvard Medical School.
Featured Hergenrother Group Member
Dr. Kathryn Partlow is a postdoctoral fellow in the Hergenrother laboratory. Kathy has been involved in the evaluation of novel rhodanine-based poly(ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase (PARG) inhibitors. Kathy presented some of her work at PARP2010 in Zurich, Switzerland.
Featured Hergenrother Group Member
Elizabeth Moritz Halvorsen graduated from UIUC in June 2010 with a PhD in Microbiology. While in the Hergenrother lab, Elizabeth was a member of the Cell and Molecular Biology Training Grant. Elizabeth discovered that the genes for toxin-antitoxin systems are ubiquitous and plasmid-encoded in certain pathogenic bacteria, and determined the mechanism of the txe toxin of the axe-txe toxin-antitoxin system, and investigated the prevalence of TA genes in clinical isolates of MRSA. Elizabeth also wrote a book chapter on the prevalence of plasmid-encoded resistance in bacteria and presented some of her work at the 2008 Antibacterial Gordon Research Conference in Italy. Elizabeth is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Prof. Darren Higgins at Harvard Medical School.
Featured Hergenrother Group Member
Rahul Palchaudhuri graduated in 2011 with a PhD in Chemistry. While at UIUC Rahul synthesized and evaluated two novel classes of anti-cancer agents, the TPMPs and TPMAs, both with in vivo activity, one of which has been licensed for development as a human chemotherapeutic by LinkCore Pharma. Rahul was instrumental in assessing the mode of action of cribrostatin 6, DNQ, anti-mitotics, and LDH-A inhibitors. Rahul has received the UIUC Fuson Travel Award, the Vandeveer Vorrhees Award for Best Original Research Proposal, and a Pines Graduate Fellowship. He has written reviews on DNA binding anti-cancer drugs and systems biology approaches to target identification. He presented his work at the 2009 Gordon Research Conference on Bioorganic Chemistry and is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Scadden's lab at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
Featured Hergenrother Group Member
Kristin Finch graduated from UIUC in 2011 with a PhD in Chemistry. While in the Hergenrother lab, Kristin was a member of the Chemical Biology Interface Training Grant. Kristin developed novel small molecule inhibitors of poly(ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase (PARG), compounds that selectively inhibit PARG over the other PAR glycohydrolase. Kristin presented some of her work at the PARP2010 conference in Zurich, Switzerland. Kristin is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Saint Jude Children’s Research hospital in Memphis, TN, working in the laboratories of Profs Kip Guy and Michael Dyer.
Featured Hergenrother Group Member
Nora Wang Eibergen graduated from UIUC in January 2011 with a PhD in Organic Chemistry. While in the Hergenrother lab, Nora worked on the development of novel anti-bacterial agents, and in this context developed a novel assay for the MazF bacterial toxin. Nora presented some of her work at the 2008 ACS National Meeting in New Orleans and is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Prof. Helen Blackwell at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Featured Hergenrother Group Member
Diana West graduated from UIUC in June of 2011 with a PhD in Chemistry. While in the Hergenrother lab, Diana evaluated a novel class of trioxane sulfone dimers as anti-cancer agents, and was part of the team that discovered the mechanism by which the compound PAC-1 activates procaspase-3 and -7. Diana also developed a gram-scale solution-phase synthesis of the Ac-DEVD-pNA caspase-3/-7 substrate and developed the compound S-PAC-1 for a Phase I clinical trial in pet dogs with lymphoma. Diana was the recipient of a pre-doctoral fellowship from the NIH, and has presented her work at the DoD Era of Hope Breast Cancer conference, the NIH Summit 2008, and SACNAS national conferences and is now a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Charles Clevenger at Northwestern University.
Featured Hergenrother Group Member
Quinn Peterson graduated from UIUC in July 2011 with a PhD in Biochemistry. While a graduate student in the Hergenrother lab, Quinn was a member of the Chemistry-Biology Interface Training Grant. Quinn was part of the team that identified the mechanism by which the novel anti-cancer agent PAC-1 activates procaspase-3 and that defined the SAR and sub-cellular localization for PAC-1. Quinn also developed a gram-scale solution-phase synthesis of the Ac-DEVD-pNA caspase-3/-7 substrate and developed the compound S-PAC-1 for a Phase I clinical trial in pet dogs with lymphoma. In 2009 Quinn was awarded a predoctoral fellowship from the Medicinal Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society and presented his work at Experimental Biology 2009 among numerous other conferences. Quinn is now a posdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor Douglas Melton at Harvard University.
Featured Hergenrother Group Member
Claire Knezevic graduated in 2008 with a B.A. in Chemistry from Scripps College (Claremont, CA). While in the Hergenrother laboratory, Claire has been part of the design, synthesis, and evaluation of novel inhibitors of poly(ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase (PARG). Claire presented some of her work at PARP2010 in Zurich, Switzerland, and she is an NSF predoctoral fellow.
Featured Hergenrother Group Member
Howard Roth graduated in 2009 with a B.S. in chemistry from Northwestern University, where he conducted undergraduate research with Prof. Karl Scheidt. In the Hergenrother laboratory Howard has been working on the development of potent anticancer agents, and recently published a manuscript on the design, synthesis, and evaluation of a 837-membered library of PAC-1 derivatives.
Featured Hergenrother Group Member
Rachel Botham graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry and Biological Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh, and joined the chemical biology graduate program at UIUC as a member of the Chemical Biology Interface Training Program and as a Springborn Fellow. While in the Hergenrother lab Rachel has developed a convenient synthesis of a chromogenic caspase substrate, and was part of the team that identified potent new anticancer agents from a library of PAC-1 derivatives. Rachel is an NSF predoctoral fellow.
Featured Hergenrother Group Member
Joe Bair received his B.S. in chemistry from BYU and joined the Hergenrother lab in 2006 as a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry. Joe synthesized the novel anticancer compound DNQ, an extremely potent azaanthraquinone, and Joe also determined the mechanism by which DNQ induces death in cancer cells in culture. While at UIUC Joe has been the recipient of the Pytosh Graduate Fellowship, the Pines travel award, and the Fuson Travel Award, an award that allowed Joe to present his work at the 2010 Gordon Research Conference on Natural Products and he is now a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of John Hartwig at UC Berkeley.
Featured Hergenrother Group Member
Julia Williams graduated with a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Idaho and joined the Hergenrother lab in 2007 as a graduate student in the Department of Microbiology. Julia is investigating the tractability of toxin-antitoxin systems as novel antibacterial targets, and has published a manuscript on the mechanism of the txe toxin, on the prevalence of toxin-antitoxin genes in MRSA and P. aeruginosa, and a review of the potential of exploiting plasmid-encoded factors in antimicrobial therapy. Julia is a member of the NIH Cellular and Molecular Biology Training Grant, and presented some of her research at PacifiChem 2010.
Featured Hergenrother Group Member
Emilia Calvaresi graduated in 2009 from Rice University with degrees in Biochemistry, Cell Biology, and English. Emilia joined the Hergenrother laboratory in December 2009 as an MD/PhD student. Emilia is exploiting the Warburg Effect as a selective anticancer approach, and has published a manuscript on the inhibition of lactate dehydrogenase A (LDH-A) as a selective anti-tumor strategy.
Featured Hergenrother Group Member
Karen Morrison received her B.S. in chemistry from Harvey Mudd College in 2008 and joined the Department of Chemistry at UIUC later that year as a Springborn Fellow and a National Science Foundation predoctoral fellow. Karen recently published a manuscript on a novel and facile method for the evaluation of compounds that affect the tubulin/microtubulin dynamic.
Welcome, our laboratory uses small organic molecules to identify and define novel targets for
the treatment of a variety of intractable biomedical problems. We use the tools of synthetic organic chemistry, biochemistry, combinatorial chemistry, high-throughput screening, and cell biology to explore disease states that have for a variety of reasons resisted the standard paradigm of drug discovery and development. In the course of this work we often obtain clinical samples from patients in an effort to both define the levels of a target in the patient population and to test the efficacy of our compounds in these clinical isolates. We are actively using small molecules to define novel biological targets for the treatment of cancer, neurodegeneration, and drug-resistant bacteria.