Author: bpurse78

Breanna Canter, an undergraduate researcher in the Purse Lab, is going places! After completing her B.S. degree in Chemistry at SDSU with extensive research experience, she is moving to South San Francisco in June to take a position at Genentech, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. In the Purse Lab, Breanna has made vital contributions to new phosph(on)ate chemistry that we expect to publish later in 2017. In the meantime, we’re thrilled to have a soon-to-be Purse Lab alumna represent us in the Bay Area!

J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 1372–1375.

The Purse Lab has invented a new cytidine analogue that becomes vastly more fluorescent upon incorporation into double-stranded DNA. Remarkably, the fluorescence turn-on response requires correct base pairing with guanosine, allowing visual discrimination of matched sequences, and shown in the photo below (left to right: single stranded probe, matched duplex, mismatched duplex). This fluorescence turn-on response promises new applications in biophysics. Read the details here! Congratulations to Dillon, Kristine, Ray, and Melissa, the student authors who invented the 8-DEA-tC probe molecule and completed a detailed investigation of its properties!

Karena is joining the Purse Lab effective November 2016. She is a senior at SDSU studying Biology with an emphasis on Cellular and Molecular Biology. In the Purse Lab, Karena’s research will focus on chemical biology using fluorescent nucleoside analogues.

George is joining the Purse Lab effective October 2016. He is a graduate of the School of Pharmacy at Cairo University, Egypt, and has worked as a pharmacist while studying medicinal chemistry at the graduate level. In the Purse Lab, George’s research will focus on synthetic nucleoside analogues for the inhibition of viral and bacterial pathogens.

Recent Purse Lab graduate Raymond Lee just received his first job offer as a professional chemist after completing his M.S. degree. He is starting work on October 24, 2016 as a Research Associate at the La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company in San Diego. Congratulations, Ray!

Dillon, Kristine, and Ray, along with Melissa Lokensgard from the Love Lab at SDSU, are joint authors with Dr. Purse on a new submission! We have invented an exciting new addition to our fluorescent nucleoside analogues and look forward to sharing the details as our manuscript advances through the publishing process. Stay tuned!

Today, Sadie Martin was offered a position as Research Associate at MicroVention in Tustin, CA! She starts on 8/15. Congrats, Sadie! Obviously, the training that you get in the Purse group rocks!

Ray Lee successfully defended his MS thesis today, “Synthesis and Photophysical Studies of Tricyclic Cytidine Analogues in Oligonucleotides.” Congratulations, Ray!

Jason successfully defended his MS thesis, titled “New chemical methods for masking phosphates and phosphonates for drug delivery purposes.” Congratulations, Jason!