Medicinal-Pharmaceutical Chemistry Commons^™

Rwanda's Natural Remedies: A Fresh Look At The Fight Against Malaria, Leandre Nsabimana Ndisanze

Pomona Senior Theses

Malaria remains one of the most devastating parasitic diseases globally, disproportionately affecting sub-Saharan Africa, where Rwanda continues to face high transmission rates and rising resistance to conventional interventions. Despite decades of control efforts, the emergence of drug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum and insecticide-resistant Anopheles mosquitoes threatens to reverse recent gains. This research responds to the urgent need for sustainable and culturally relevant alternatives by exploring the therapeutic potential of Rwandan traditional medicinal plants. These indigenous remedies, long used by local healers, offer an underexplored reservoir of bioactive compounds that may provide the basis for novel antimalarial drugs.

The central hypothesis of this …

Synthesis Of 2-Arylpyridines By The Suzuki–Miyaura Cross-Coupling Of Pyfluor With Hetero (Aryl) Boronic Acids And Esters, Juan Rueda-Espinosa, Dewni Ramanayake, Nicholas Ball, Jennifer A. Love

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

The Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling of pyridine-2-sulfonyl fluoride (PyFluor) with hetero(aryl) boronic acids and pinacol boronic esters is reported. The reactions can be performed using Pd(dppf)Cl2 as the catalyst, at temperatures between 65 and 100 °C and in the presence of water and oxygen. This transformation generates 2-arylpyridines in modest to good yields (5%–89%).

The Emerging Applications Of Sulfur (Vi) Fluorides In Catalysis, Nicholas Ball, Cayo Lee, Jonathan E. Elisabeth, Nathan C. Friede, Glenn M. Sammis

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

The past decade has witnessed remarkable growth of catalytic transformations in organic sulfur(VI) fluoride chemistry. This Perspective concentrates exclusively on foundational examples that utilize catalytic strategies to synthesize and react S(VI) fluorides. Key mechanistic studies that aim to provide insight toward future catalytic systems are emphasized.

Using Nmr Spectroscopy And Computational Chemistry To Confirm The Structure Of Novel Antibiotic Nocamycin O, Stephanie Lewis

CMC Senior Theses

In recent years, many medically promising antibiotics have been discovered in nature, especially in insect-microbe symbioses. One of the better-studied examples of this kind of defensive relationship is that of fungus-growing ants and the antibiotic-producing Actinobacteria. These bacteria produce several defensive chemicals with myriad uses, including one antibiotic that inhibits the growth of several bacterial strains, including other Actinobacteria. This antibiotic (known as nocamycin O) is a promising candidate for medicinal use due to its similarities to bacterial RNA polymerase inhibitors tirandamycin and streptolydigin, which inhibit several human pathogens. The determination of the structure of nocamycin O will be an …

Sufex Activation With Ca(Ntf2)2: A Unified Strategy To Access Sulfamides, Sulfamates, And Sulfonamides From S(Vi) Fluorides, Nicholas Ball, Subham Mahapatra, Cristian P. Woroch, Todd W. Butler, Sabrina N. Carneiro, Sabrina C. Kwan, Samuel R. Khasnavis, Junha Gu, Jason K. Dutra, Beth C. Vetelino, Justin Bellenger, Christopher W. Am Ende

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

A method to activate sulfamoyl fluorides, fluorosulfates, and sulfonyl fluorides with calcium triflimide and DABCO for SuFEx with amines is described. The reaction was applied to a diverse set of sulfamides, sulfamates, and sulfonamides at room temperature under mild conditions. Additionally, we highlight this transformation to parallel medicinal chemistry to generate a broad array of nitrogen-based S(VI) compounds.

Phage Display To Identify Functional Resistance Mutations To Rigosertib, Nedim Filipovic

CMC Senior Theses

In vitro protein selection has had major impacts in the field of protein engineering. Traditional screens assay individual proteins for specific function. Selection, however, analyzes a pool of mutants and yields the best variants. Phage display, a successful selection technique, also provides a reliable link between variant phenotype and genotype. It can also be coupled with high throughput sequencing to map protein mutations; potentially highlighting vital mutations in variants. We propose to apply this technique to cancer therapy. RAF, a serine/threonine kinase, is critical for cell regulation in mammals. RAF can be activated by oncogenic RAS, found in over 30% …