Research
Faculty Members
Natural Products for Drug Discovery（Chemistry）
Kimishima AtsushiSpecially Appointed Assistant Professor
A number of natural products with potent biological activity and complex chemical structure have sparked interest in their medicinal applications. However, there is no universal synthetic method that allow us to freely synthesize structurally complex molecules. Against such a background, I am focusing on development of new synthetic strategies to efficiently assemble topologically complex bioactive natural products and their application to total synthesis. I am also performing isolation, structure determination and mode of action analysis of natural products exhibiting new biological activities.
Research theme
Total synthesis of natural products
Conducting efficient and comprehensive natural product syntheses based on our originally developed synthetic strategies.
Development of new synthetic methodologies
Exploring new synthetic strategies for efficient and divergent synthesis of topologically complex biologically active natural products.
Structure-activity relationship studies
Analyzing relationships between chemical structure and biological activity of natural products and their analogs discovered in our laboratory.
Isolation and structure determination of natural products
Performing bioactivity-guided natural products isolation based on in-house developed assay systems and their structure determination using various spectroscopic analyses.
Representative achievements
Asymmetric formal synthesis of trichodermamide B and C
A stereoselective construction of a cis-1,2-oxazadecalline skeleton using a substrate- controlled intramolecular oxy-Michael addition of tyrosine-derived hydroxylamine
Selective cytotoxicity of marine-derived fungal metabolite (3S,6S)-3,6-dibenzylpiperazine- 2,5-dione against cancer cells adapted to nutrient starvation
Selective cytotoxicity of epidithiodiketopiperazine DC1149B, produced by marine-derived Trichoderma lixii on the cancer cells adopted to glucose starvation
An advance in prescription opioid vaccines: Overdose mortality reduction and extraordinary alteration of drug half-life
Efficient syntheses of cocaine vaccines and their in vivo evaluation
Combatting synthetic designer opioids: A conjugate vaccine ablates lethal dose of fentanyl class drug
Synthesis of (–)-oxycodone
