Directory: Faculty

Ryan E. Looper

ORGANIC & BIOORGANIC CHEMISTRY

Assistant Professor

B.S. Western Washington University, 1998
M.Sc. Western Washington University, 1999
Ph.D. Colorado State University, 2004
NIH Postdoctoral Fellow harvard University, 2004-2007

Phone: (801) 585-0408

Office: 3166 HEB-N

Email: r.looper@utah.edu

Research Group

Publications
   

Activities & Awards

  • NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, 2005
  • Array Biopharma Research Fellowship, 2003
  • Western Assoc. of Graduate Schools/UMI Distinguished Thesis Award, 2001

Research Interests

Our research program focuses on the behavior of small molecules within biological systems. With clues from nature, we aim to develop compounds as specific modulators of cell signaling events and as tools for a community.

Initially, our synthetic achievements will support the exploration of post-translational protein-arginine modifications and its consequences. The recent implication of these events in a number of disease states (multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, glaucoma and tumorogenesis) encourages the preparation of biological tools and therapeutic leads.

Insight into the mechanism of action of natural products will inspire the development of new synthetic methodology and fragment based small molecule collections. In part, these advances will access natural product families which exhibit a wide range of biological activities. The efficient construction of these skeletons will allow us to investigate the evolutionary conservation of their biosynthesis by their contribution to the national screening infrastructure.

We are also developing antibiotic collections for the inhibition of prokaryotic protein synthesis. Molecules with purported rRNA binding interactions that are uncharacterized or non-overlapping with known sites of resistance will be targeted to advance our understanding of RNA’s binding topology.

topSelected Publications

  • M. R. Kaadige, R. E. Looper, Ka. Sadhaasivam and D. E. Ayer “Glutamine-dependent anapleurosis dictates glucose uptake and cell growth by regulating MondoA transcriptional activity" Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 2009, in press.
  • R. L. Giles, J. D. Sullivan, A. M. Steiner and R. E. Looper “Addition-hydroamination reactions of propargyl cyanamides: Rapid access to highly substituted 2-aminoimidazoles " Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 3116-3120.
  • J. D. Sullivan, R. L. Giles and R. E. Looper “2-aminoimidazoles from Leucetta sponges: synthesis and biology of an important pharmacophore" Curr. Bioactive Cmpds. 2009, 5, 39-78.

  • R. E. Looper, D. Pizzirani, S.L. Schreiber “Macrocycloadditions leading to conformationally  restricted small molecules” Org. Lett. 2006, 8, 2063-2066.

  • R. E. Looper, M. T. C. Runnegar, R. M. Williams “Syntheses of the cylindrospermopsin alkaloids and their toxicological evaluation” Tetrahedron 2006, 62, 4549–4562.

  • R. E. Looper, M. T.C. Runnegar, R. M. Williams “Synthesis of the putative structure of 7-deoxycylindrospermopsin: C7-oxygenation is not required for the inhibition of  protein synthesis” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2005, 44, 3879-3881.

  • R. E. Looper and R. M. Williams “A concise asymmetric synthesis of the marine hepatotoxin 7-epi-cylindrospermopsin” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 2930-2933. (VIP paper)

  • R. E. Looper and R. M. Williams “Construction of cylindrospermopsin’s A ring via an intramolecular oxazinone-N-oxide dipolar cycloaddition” Tetrahedron Lett. 2001, 42, 769-771.

  • J. R. Vyvyan, C. Loitz, R. E. Looper, C. S. Mattingly, E. A.  Peterson, S. T. Staben “Synthesis of aromatic bisabolene natural products via palladium-catalyzed cross couplings of organozinc reagents”  J. Org. Chem. 2004, 69, 2461-2468.