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Andrus Lab

Dr. Merritt Andrus of BYU's Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry oversees the Andrus Lab, which explores organic chemistry with the intention of treating disastrous, modernly prevalent diseases.

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What is our current work?

Recent work by the Andrus Lab includes our synthesis of stipiamide, a reversal agent for multidrug resistance (MDR). We've also created several compounds to restore potency to anti-cancer drugs. Currently we are considering several new oligomeric MDR reversal agents.

Our methods include copper-tin conjugate addition and palladium acetylene couplings. We made and, with a stipiamide motif, screened a combinatorial library (an array of variants using a new, solution-phase-based approach) to identify potent compounds that we may use for MDR reversal agents.

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What do we do?

The Andrus Lab Group synthesizes biologically active natural products with potential for combinatorial library construction and screening.

We use metal catalyzed couplings and condensations to assemble key intermediates. Libraries of structural variants are then designed and used to probe receptor bindings and improve activity.

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What are our other interests?

Our other interests include:

  • geldanamycin, an anti-cancer agent.
  • an anti-glycolate asymmetric aldol reaction, which can generate the 1,2-methoxy, hydroxy functionality.
  • shock protein 90, a geldanamycin target.
  • stilbene resveratrol, the suspected perpetrator of the "French Paradox." Foods with stilbene resveratrol (like grapes) lead to lower cancer and heart disease rates. We've invented coupling methods to produce stilbene resveratol.