Current Team
We are a fully high-school research group, made up of freshman through senior students across the Bay Area who work on applying synthetic organic chemistry to biological systems.
Biosketch: Aashi began her research experience at ASDRP in early 2020, studying a) the antimicrobial effects of berberine analogs and b) the interactions between different polyphenols and the amyloid-beta protein in individuals with Alzheimer’s. She still works in the Njoo group but is focusing on the semisynthesis of natural products like berberine and carmofur with the goal of treating different illnesses including cancer and COVID-19. Her current research interests include treating uncured neurodegenerative diseases like dementia and synthesizing natural product analogs to treat various diseases like bacterial infections and cancer.
Biosketch: Aishwarya Yuvaraj started her research career at ASDRP in the lab of Edward Njoo, where she first worked on computational model organism comparative studies. She now works on the chemical synthesis of 2,4-dihydropyrimidines via Biginelli multi component reactions as potential leads in anti cancer therapeutics and biological assays in cancer cells and computational screening of these compounds. Aishwarya also works on chemical synthesis of natural product Andrographolide analogs supplemented with biological assays in cancer cells, RT-qPCR, and computational screening.
Biosketch: As a current high school junior at Carlmont High School, Alice Finkelstein has a strong interest in scientific research, particularly in the field of organic chemistry and biotechnology. Alice has been a student researcher at the Aspiring Scholars Directed Research Program since the summer of 2021. She is involved in various projects including the development of analogs of rivastigmine, investigating the photorelease capabilities of synthesized prodrugs, and using non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors to stop the viral replication of HIV. Alice’s research interests include chemical neuroscience, photochemistry, catalysis, small molecule therapeutics, and drug delivery.
Biosketch: Alice Zhou is a current high school senior at BASIS Independent Silicon Valley. She instigated her research journey at ASDRP under the Edward Njoo lab where she initially worked on developing photo-caging groups based on the o-nitrobenzyl functional group towards light enabled targeted drug release. Then she embarked on the semi synthesis of the natural product andrographolide to optimize its structure for increased therapeutic potential regarding cancer, multiple sclerosis, and other diseases, and is working towards the optimization of the Buchwald-Hartwig cross coupling reaction to synthesize and assay structural analogues of rilpiverine, an FDA approved NNRTI as next-generation HIV/AIDS small molecule treatments.
Biosketch: Alivia began her research career at ASDRP June 2020. She started her research in the Clark Group, developing methods regarding the protein Kras in order to prevent lung cancer. She then joined Edward's research group where she first started working on plant hormones, synthesizing numerous conditions, primarily cytokinesis, in order to reduce neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinsons. She is currently working on the developing analogs of berberine, a natural product, radical formation of dihydroeugenol, and analogs of rivastigmine to help prevent Schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease.
Biosketch: Andrew Chen started his research career at ASDRP in the lab of Scott Clark where he researched the synthesis of pyrazoles derivatives of Curcumin as inhibitors to the Fat-mass and Obesity-related protein. After a brief stint with nitrogen heterocyclic compounds, he transitioned into Edward Njoo’s group where he currently works on the total synthesis of Psychrophiin E, a cyclic tripeptide derived from the marine fungus Aspergillus Versicolor ZLN-60, and the chemical synthesis of Doramectin analogs in an effort to increase its antihelminthic properties. Andrew's current research interests include development of scalable reaction platforms for rapid analog synthesis in medicinal chemistry, as well as natural product total synthesis.
Biosketch: Exposure to the LC-MS, GIS (Geographical Informational System), and DNA extraction process.
Biosketch: Audrey Ku started her research career at ASDRP in the lab of Edward Njoo. Intially she worked on synthesizing rivastigmine to reduce schizophrenia and berberine. She transitioned to focusing more on prodrugging podophyllotoxin to help minimize its side effects as well as oxidizing doramectin. Audrey’s current research interests include development of scalable multi component reaction platforms for rapid analog synthesis as well as analyzing NMR data and testing on worms.
Biosketch: Darshita Prathap is a third year student at Dougherty Valley High School. Starting her research career in the Njoo group, she has worked in projects involving aromatic substitution reactions of 4-Methoxy, as well as Methyl grignard reactions. She is currently involved in the Carmofur efforts to monitor and scale the reactions of 5-Fluorouracil with different isocyanates, specifically 2-Chloroethyl, through 19F characterization. Darshita's research interests entail synthesis in medicinal chemistry, along with her current research projects.
Biosketch: Protein extraction from plants [flash freezing with nitrogen], Bradford Assays
Biosketch: Emma Le started her research career at ASDRP in the lab of Edward Njoo where she spent and is currently spending the majority of her time distributed between two projects which collectively focus upon yielding photoactive natural products and synthetic drugs to induce antiproliferative activity within cancerous cells. More specifically, she works with a naturally occurring isoquinoline alkaloid known as berberine whose medicinal properties stem from its ability to intercalate and incur oxidative damage in guanine base pairs in the DNA of cancer cells via singlet oxygen production as well as 2,4-dihydropyrimidine synthesis utilized as potential leads in anti cancer therapeutics and motor protein inhibition. She has also garnered heightened interest towards antiviral drug discovery probed to treating COVID-19 to which she is currently aiding in producing kinetics data using 19F and qNMR, otherwise known as nuclear magnetic resonance, spectroscopy for the library of analogs.
Biosketch: Erika Yu began researching in environmental science, studying the correlation between the gray wolf population and natural disasters. She is currently researching at ASDRP in Edward Njoo’s group, transitioning from studying environmental science to organic and medicinal chemistry. She began by helping synthesizing rivastigmine, which is a drug commonly used to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease. Erika is currently working on synthesizing various analogs of that drug. In addition, she has expanded her work to prodrugs to increase selectivity for cancer treatment and synthesizing and testing analogs of doramectin for veterinary purposes. Erika’s current research interests include development of enzyme assays.
Biosketch: Jane Wu started her research career at UT Austin under Dr. Al MacKrell. There, she analyzed RNA-seq datasets to compare how the presence or absence of RBM5 regulates alternative splicing, suggesting that RBM5 may be a promising target for cancer therapy. In June 2021, she started working in the lab of Edward Njoo, where she investigated the effect of antiparasitic macrocyclic lactones on nematode activity. Interested in finding more advanced cures for human diseases, she also works on synthetic methods to access carmofur by isocyanate additions targeting the SARS-CoV-2 Mpro as well as developing potent antiretroviral analogs through Buchwald-Hartwig cross coupling and copper catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition.
Biosketch: Jeslyn Wu began research as a rising freshman exploring the carbon and nitrogen footprint of FUSD in Avery Kruger's environmental science group. Following a summer of using coliform bacteria to qualify dairy products in Hiral Dantara's biology group, she transferred to Edward Njoo's chemistry group during sophomore year where she began working on novel NNRTIs as HIV/AIDS treatment. Jeslyn currently works on methodology and optimization of the palladium catalyzed Buchwald Hartwig reaction towards novel NNRTIs as well as semisynthesis of andrographolide analogs and the utilization of 19F NMR to enable syntheses of diarylpyrimidine compounds. Jeslyn’s current research interests include utilization of 19F nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to enable real time monitoring and optimization of synthetic transformations that enable synthesis of next generation antiviral and anticancer compounds.
Biosketch: Krithikaa Premnath started her research career as a rising sophomore in the lab of Prabhjeet Kaur where she studied the presence of Coccidioides immitis across west California. After a brief stint in environmental microbiology, she transitioned into Edward Njoo’s group where she currently works on the chemical synthesis of 2,4-dihydropyrimidines via Biginelli multicomponent reactions as promising leads in anti-cancer therapeutics. Moreover, she has worked on the design and synthesis of potential small molecule inhibitors of the TP53-inducible glycolysis and apoptosis regulator and the COVID-19 protease. Krithikaa’s current interests include the development of scalable multi-component platforms for rapid analog synthesis in medicinal chemistry, as well as natural product total synthesis.
About Edward
"I am a native of the Bay Area, and I am convinced that chemistry is central to everything. I am a product of Loyola Marymount University (Undergraduate), Biola University (Master's), and Stanford University (current, PhD candidate).
Member of the American Chemical Society (ACS), American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (ASBMB), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Current research interests include the interface of chemical synthesis and chemical biology, physical organic chemistry and reaction development, C-H fluorination chemistry, and synthesis of bioactive and structurally complex natural products."