The overall goal of my research is to work with disease oriented biomedical research investigators to develop small molecule drugs for a variety of medically unmet CNS and peripheral diseases.

We develop a variety of in vitro cell based screening assays, and use them to identify small molecule modulators of biological targets, determine mode of action and disease relevance for a potential small molecule modulator (ligand). Along these lines, we identified highly potent, selective EP2 antagonists and demonstrated that they are anti-inflammatory in in vitro cultures and in an acute inflammation model of status epilepticus.

Using a variety of synthetic methods developed in our laboratory and elsewhere, we will synthesize novel chemical probes that will be used to identify the biological targets for the potential novel organic small molecules.

When required for the project, we develop novel synthetic methodologies for biologically active novel small molecules.