Congrats to Paige Thorpe and all of our collaborators on the occasion of our interdisciplinary work recognized as the Top Original Research Paper of 2023! We’re celebrating the enthusiasm expressed by the community for new drug discovery in a therapeutic area that has a tremendous unmet need for antiarrhythmic agents.

I’d like to recognize our Merck Compound Challenge Team for 2023-24 for their stellar performance. Led by Melanie Padalino, the Magic Methyls team was comprised of Paige, Zihang, Kyle, Preston, Scott, and Julius. The route they proposed made it through the peer review stage and into the Top 10% group. Fewer than 20 proposals worldwide received this distinction. They continued our tradition of fielding a team for this annual event, and I’m quite proud of this group effort every year. A special congratulations goes to this Team for making it so far into the competition, and we look forward to celebrating the Finalists and the ultimate winner of the competition! -JNJ

Congratulations to Dan Sprague (Ph.D. 2016) who landed a position at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston as an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. After his graduate work at Vanderbilt, Dan completed his MD at the Medical College of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and then honed his skills in the Marchant lab as an AHA Postdoctoral Fellow. Looking forward to seeing what that kind of training pathway does for human health – stay tuned – coming Summer 2024!

Welcome G1’s: The group extends a warm welcome to Cody Funk, Chloe Vernon, Destiny Harrison, & Yi-Ching Lin, the 2023 chemistry graduate student cohort.

Rockstar catalyst Adamant-AmA is now in JACS - congrats to the team: Zihang, Melanie, Julius, Sangjun, and Michael!

Congrats to Abby, Paige and our collaborators on our study of ent-verticilide B1 in vivo, just accepted to Molecular Pharmacology!

Congrats Abby! Our successful effort to map binding of ent-verticilide to RyR2 is detailed in our latest publication in ACS Chemical Biology. This multi-institutional interdisciplinary study was anchored by Abby’s synthesis of fluorescently-labeled ent-verticilide. Coincidentally, she also used this compound to identify a leak in our HPLC.

Congrats to Paige: Her NIH F31 predoctoral application was funded!

Destiny, Rakel, Darius, and Julius finish their summer stints! Destiny jumps right into orientation for chemistry graduate studies, Rakel flies back to LAX to finish her undergrad degree at Pepperdine, Darius takes a break before classes begin, and Julius muscles through some buzzer-beater results before the semester begins. We’re excited to see their next steps!

Congrats to Paige and our collaboration with the Knollmann lab! Our latest work appeared in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology. Check out VUMC’s summary here: https://news.vumc.org/2023/06/08/targeting-calcium-handling-in-a-fib/

The group welcomes VU undergraduate Darius Johnson to the lab for his first undergraduate research experience! This summer, he is supported by the MARC START program.

The group welcomes Rakel Ang from Pepperdine University as an undergraduate researcher supported by the NSF REU in Chemistry!

We welcome incoming graduate student Destiny Harrison to the group for a summer research/rotation experience! Destiny hails from Louisiana State University in Alexandria where she completed her B.S. Chemistry degree in May.

Welcome Cale (part 1)! Best wishes, Cale (part 2)! The group welcomed Cale Locicero to Vanderbilt for the 2022 summer as our NSF REU student in chemical biology… and now Cale completed this 12 week intensive, returning home to LSU and the Kartika group to finish off his degree!

Congratulations Julius! Undergrad Julius Jan was awarded VUSRP to spend the summer with us - congrats!

Congratulations graduate! The group is so proud of Hannah Craft for her successful Honors Thesis defense, the completion of her graduates studies, the awarding of her diploma, and her start in medical school at the University of Mississippi!

Huge congrats Preston and Melanie! Melanie was awarded Honorable Mention, and Preston received a fellowship from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Competition this year (2022)!

Congrats Jade W! Jade Williams (PhD Chemistry 2022) accepted a position in medicinal chemistry at Pfizer in Connecticut.

Congrats Abby! Abigail Smith PhD Chemistry 2021) accepted a position in medicinal chemistry at Eli Lilly in Indianapolis.

Congrats Jenna! Jenna Payne (PhD Chemistry 2021) accepted a position in Process Chemistry at Boehringer-Ingelheim in Connecticut.

Congrats Corri! Corri Calandra accepted a position in May 2021 to teach chemistry and coach lacrosse at BGA, a private high school in Franklin, TN.

Congrats Rashanique! Rashanique is transitioning to her new position as Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Rowan University. We wish you success early and often as you embark on your independent career!

Congrats Danielle! Danielle Faivre (nee Boley) (NSF REU 2016) was awarded an NIH F31 Predoctoral Fellowship to support her graduate work at the University of Washington - congrats Danielle!

Congrats Vanessa! Vanessa Arredondo (BS Chemistry 2012) accepted a position in the materials science group at The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, CA. Vanessa completed her PhD work in 2019 with David Van Vranken at UCI, where she was also an NSF Predoctoral Fellow. We wish you continued success Vanessa!

Jade B leaves for Corteva! We wish Jade Bing all the best as she starts her fabulous career at Corteva Agriscience!

Congrats Jade B! Jade Bing presented her dissertation work in a public Zoom presentation (>100!): “Stereocontrolled Approaches to β-Fluoroamines and a Formal Synthesis of the Anti-HIV and Antibacterial Peptide (-)-Feglymycin”, leading to her successful defense and conferral of the PhD!

Congrats Abby! Abby’s NIH F31 application was funded! As a 2020 NIH Predoctoral Fellow, she is spearheading our collaboration with the Knollmann lab.

Good things come in 3’s! A huge welcome to Jade Williams! Little did we know that the best organic chemistry can’t be done with just 2 parts Jade. Actually, we did know, but now we’re complete! We’ve never been so disappointed for May to come…

Rashanique - that’s Professor Quarels to you! Deepest congratulations to Academic Pathways Postdoctoral Scholar Rashanique Quarels, who signed her early commitment papers with Rowan University. Batting 1.000 on interviews/offers!