Teaching: I have been teaching undergraduate courses, Pharm.D. professional courses and graduate courses (Ph.D. / M.S. program) within the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.Research: Our research lab has interest in developing drug leads for the treatment of cancer, infectious diseases, diabetes and inflammation-associated health conditions.(i) Development of new synthetic methodologies to access privileged organic scaffolds for medicinal chemistry efforts. We are currently exploring simple organic molecules as potential catalysts for various chemical transformations.Barasa, L.; Yoganathan, S. RSC Adv. 2018, 8, 35824-35830.Barasa, L.; Yong, A.; Yoganathan, S. ChemistrySelect, 2020, 5, 3173-3178.(ii) Investigation of natural products and their derivatives as potential anticancer and anti-inflammatory agents. The natural products of interest to our lab includes but not limited to lipopeptides, aminoglycosides and polyphenols.Kong, J.; Wu, X. -Z.; Wei, L.; Chen, Z. -S.; Yoganathan, S. Front. Microbiol., 2020, 11: 1718.(iii) Synthetic small molecules as drug leads for the treatment of infectious diseases, cancer and inflammation and bone degeneration/fracture. Gorasiya, S.; Pekson, R.; Yoganathan, S.; Reznik, S. E. Curr. Pharm. Des. 2018, 24, 989-992.Shao, X.; AbdelKhalek, A.; Abutaleb, N. S.; Velagapudi, U. K.; Yoganathan, S.; Seleem, M. N.; Talele, T. T. J. Med. Chem. 2019, ASAP article.

Research areas: Our research lab is involved in several research projects with an interest in developing drug leads for the treatment of cancer, infectious diseases, diabetes and inflammation-associated health conditions.(i) Development of new synthetic methodologies to access privileged organic scaffolds for medicinal chemistry efforts. We are currently exploring simple organic molecules as potential catalysts for various chemical transformations.Barasa, L.; Yoganathan, S. RSC Adv. 2018, 8, 35824-35830.Barasa, L.; Yong, A.; Yoganathan, S.* ChemistrySelect, 2020, 5, 3173-3178.(ii) Investigation of natural products derivatives as potential anticancer and anti-inflammatory agents. Our research lab is interested in various structurally diverse polyphenolic natural products with promising antibacterial, anticancer, anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory properties.(iii) Design, synthesis and bioactivity guided exploration of small molecules as potential therapeutic leads for various health conditions. Novel leads based on privileged heterocyclic structures are being investigated as drug leads for infectious diseases, cancer and tissue regeneration. N,N-Dimethylacetamide (DMA) and its analogs are being developed for the prevention of inflammation associated preterm birth. Gorasiya, S.; Pekson, R.; Yoganathan, S.; Reznik, S. E. Curr. Pharm. Des. 2018, 24, 989-992.Gandhi, T.; Patki, M.; Kong, J.; Koya, J.; Yoganathan, S.; Reznik, S. E.; Patel, K. Mol. Pharmaceutics, 2019, ASAP article.Shao, X.; AbdelKhalek, A.; Abutaleb, N. S.; Velagapudi, U. K.; Yoganathan, S.; Seleem, M. N.; Talele, T. T. J. Med. Chem. 2019, ASAP article.(iv) Development of small molecule-based anticonvulsant agents for the treatment of temporal lobe epilepsy. We are investigating structural analogs spirohydantoin as potential anticonvulsant agents. Yang, C.; Schanne, A. X. F.; Yoganathan, S.; Stephani, R. A. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2016, 26, 2912–2914.

Research area: Development of peptide-based catalysts for asymmetric synthesis and for site-selective derivatization of complex natural products.Oligopeptide-based catalysis represents an emerging field with considerable application in asymmetric synthesis and selective chemical derivatization of complex natural products. The design of peptide-based catalysts is inspired by the remarkable catalytic properties of enzymes and their ability to perform a wide range of chemical transformations.Our current research focuses on developing peptide-based catalytic methods for the site-selective modification of two different class of polyfunctional natural products. The chemical approaches we have developed allow us to access a library of novel, structurally and biologically interesting analogs. I have been involved in the following research projects.(i) Development of catalytic methods for oxidative rearrangement of carboxylic acid derivatives and investigation of this approach for the site-selective modification of daptomycin. (ii) Development of peptide-based catalysts for the modification of vancomycin and other polyol natural products.Yoganathan, S.; Miller, S. J. N-methylimidazole-catalyzed synthesis of carbamates from hydroxamic acids via the Lossen rearrangement. Org. Lett. 2013,15, 602-605.Yoganathan, S.; Yin, N.; He, Y.; Mesleh, M. F.; Gu, Y. G.; Miller, S. J. An efficient chemical synthesis of carboxylate-isostere analogs of daptomycin. Org. Biomol. Chem. 2013, 11, 4680-4685.Yoganathan, S.; Miller, S. J. Structure diversification of vancomycin through peptide-catalyzed, site-selective lipidation: A catalysis-based approach to combat glycopeptide-resistant pathogens. J. Med. Chem. 2015, 58, 2367–2377.

Research area: Chemical modification and total synthesis of lantibiotics. Lantibiotics are a subclass of antimicrobial peptides produced by Gram-positive bacteria. They exhibit remarkable antibacterial activity against several pathogenic bacteria. We have developed highly selective and efficient chemical methods to modify lantibiotics to confer broad-spectrum activity as well as to target pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria. In addition, our research is focused towards developing synthetic methods for the total synthesis of lantibiotics, which would allow researchers to obtain these potent natural products in large quantities for biological studies, and to generate analogs with improved biological activity and stability. Yoganathan, S.; Sit, C. S.; Vederas, J. C., Chemical synthesis and biological evaluation of gallidermin-siderophore conjugates. Org. Biomol. Chem. 2011, 9, 2133-2141. Martin-Visscher, L. A.; Yoganathan, S.; Sit, C. S.; Lohans, C. T.; Vederas, J. C. The activity of bacteriocins from Carnobacterium maltaromaticum UAL307 against Gram-negative bacteria in combination with EDTA treatment. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 2011, 317, 152-159.Sit, C. S.; Yoganathan, S.; Vederas, J. C. Biosynthesis of aminovinyl-cysteine containing peptides and its application in the production of potential drug candidates. Acc. Chem. Res. 2011, 44, 261-268.Yoganathan, S.; Vederas, J. C., Fracturing Rings to Understand Lantibiotics. Chem. Biol. 2008, 15, 999-1001.

Research area: Chemical synthesis and biological evaluation of radiolabeled biomolecules, including insulin.We have developed chemical methods to regioselectively radiolabel biomolecules with fluorine-18 for PET imaging and technetium-99m for SPECT imaging studies. In particular, radiolabeled insulin derivatives were synthesized and their biological distribution was evaluated.Guenther, K. J.; Yoganathan, S.; Garofalo, R.; Kawabata, T.; Strack, T.; Labiris, R.; Dolovich, M.; Chirakal, R.; Valliant, J. F., Synthesis and in Vitro Evaluation of 18F and 19F-Labeled Insulin: A New Radiotracer for PET-based Molecular Imaging Studies. J. Med. Chem. 2006, 49, 1466-1474.