Erode Prabhakaran

Postdoctoral Scholar, 2006, Texas A&M, TX
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2002, Indiana University, IN
Ph.D. Chemistry, 2000, IIT Kanpur, India

Erode is a native of India, and completed his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Organic Chemistry at the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning before studying with Javed Iqbal at IIT, Kanpur. In his graduate studies, Erode designed peptide turn mimics, completed their synthesis, and developed several new methods to accomplish these larger goals. In 2000, Erode joined the Johnston group as a postdoctoral scholar, and drove to completion several projects within our program in free radical-mediated aryl and vinyl amination. He then pursued studies in protein biochemistry with Prof. Martin Scholtz (Texas A&M). Erode accepted a position in 2006 as Assistant Professor in the Department of Organic Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore (IISc), and was promoted with tenure in 2014. His independent program at IISc Bangalore is interdisciplinary in nature, using a variety of skills in organic synthesis and physical biochemistry to create new biological catalysts for organic synthesis and to understand existing biochemical phenomena. He has made major contributions to our understanding of peptide secondary structure.
Org. Lett. 2001, 3, 1009.
Org. Lett. 2002, 4, 4197.
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 163.
Tetrahedron 2003, 59, 8877.
J. Org. Chem. 2008, 73, 3040.

Joe Mahoney

Postdoctoral Fellow, 2005, Indiana University, IN
Ph.D. Chemistry, 2003, University of Notre Dame, IN

Joe began his training as an undergraduate at Davidson College (NC) where he worked with Prof. Ruth Beeston on the development of light-harvesting ruthenium complexes. He received his B.S. Chemistry degree in 1998 and then moved to The University of Notre Dame where he worked with Prof. Brad Smith to develop new host-guest systems for molecular recognition. He received the J. Peter Grace Prize Fellowship and in 2003 received his Ph.D. in Chemistry. Joe continued his training in the Johnston group and developed the BrØnsted-acid promoted azide-olefin oxazolidine diene synthesis. In 2005, he accepted a position as Senior Research Chemist at Hercules Chemical Company in (Wilmington, DE), 2005-2014 worked as a Research Scientist at Ashland Chemical Company; 2014-2018 held the position of Research Scientist at Solenis; and in 2018 accepted the position of Senior Synthesis Chemist at Buckman, Memphis TN.
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 1354.

Jeong Seok Han

Postdoctoral Scientist, 2007, Vanderbilt University, TN
Ph.D. Chemistry, 2003, The Ohio State University, OH

Jeong Seok Han was born in Seoul, South Korea. He completed his B.S. and M.S. degrees at Yonsei University in Seoul. Following his service in the military, he worked in the chemical industry from 1992 to 1998 at the Samyang Group Research Institute. Jeong Seok then entered the graduate program in chemistry at The Ohio State University where he received his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2003, under the mentorship of Prof. Todd Lowary. In 2003 he joined the Johnston group as a postdoctoral scholar and significantly propelled our work toward the total synthesis of (+)-serratezomine A forward. In 2007, he returned to South Korea to accept a Scientist position in the pharmaceutical division at Cheil Jedang and is currently Senior Scientist at Jaeiljaedang Company (Medicinal Chemistry).
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 3470.
J. Org. Chem. 2013, 78, 822.

Ki Bum Hong

Postdoctoral Associate, 2015, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
Postdoctoral Associate, 2012, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Ph.D. Chemistry, 2010, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
M.S. Chemistry, 2003, Chungnam National University, South Korea

Ki Bum Hong hails from Daejeon, Korea where he completed B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemistry at Chungnam National University, Daejeon, South Korea. He joined the Johnston group in 2004 and has recently extended the scope of the Bronsted acid-catalyzed anti-aminohydroxylation reaction while clarifying details related to its mechanism. Of particular note is his discovery and documentation (with Matt Donahue) of secondary catalysis by water in triazoline decomposition reactions under acidic conditions. Ki Bum was a postdoctoral associate with Peter Wipf at the University of Pittsburgh from 2010 to 2012, and returned to the group in 2012 to continue the total synthesis of zwittermicin. Ki Bum also discovered the hypervalent iodine-mediated alkene diamination reaction using electron rich amines. In 2015, he began a position as Senior Researcher at DGMIF (Daegu Gyeongbuk Medical Innovation Foundation) New Drug Development Center in South Korea and is currently Principal Investigator with the Rare and Intractable Disease Team at DGMIF.
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 2323.
Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2009, 19, 4971.
Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2010, 6, 1206.
Org. Lett. 2011, 13, 1790.
Org. Lett. 2014, 16, 3804.
Org. Lett. 2015, 17, 2558.
Org. Lett. 2015, 17, 3806.

Jeremy Wilt

Postdoctoral Scientist, 2007, Vanderbilt University, TN
Ph.D. Chemistry, 2005, Yale University, CT
B.S. Chemistry, 2001, University of Pittsburgh, PA

Jeremy Wilt was raised in the boroughs of Pittsburgh and completed his B.S. degree in Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh in 2001. He then joined Jack Faller's group at Yale where he received his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2005. Later that year, he joined the Johnston group as a postdoctoral scholar and is responsible for the development of a diastereo- and enantioselective synthesis of a,b-diamino phosphonates using chiral proton catalysis. In 2007, he accepted a position at Albany Molecular Research in Syracuse, NY in their process chemistry group, but moved several years later to Johnson-Mathey outside of Boston, MA. Jeremy held the position of Director (Process Chemistry) at Karyopharm Therapeutics, Inc 2018-2019; Director, Head of Small Molecule CMC, KSQ Therapeutics, Inc 2019-22; and is currently Executive Director, CMC, Treeline Biosciences.
Org. Lett. 2008, 10, 2445.
Chem. Commun. 2008, 35, 4177.
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 2880.

Matt Donahue

Postdoctoral Scientist, 2007, Vanderbilt University, TN
Ph.D. Chemistry, 2005, The Ohio State University, OH

Matt Donahue is a native of the midwest, specifically Wisconsin, where he completed his B.S. degree in chemistry in 1999 at the University of Wisconsin at Parkside. He then entered the graduate program in chemistry at The Ohio State University where he received his Ph.D. in 2005 under the mentorship of Prof. David Hart, working toward the total synthesis of terpene natural products. He joined the Johnston group later that year as a postdoctoral scholar. Matt contributed to several efforts, including the preparative synthesis of phosphoramidon and the development of Bronsted acid promoted azide-olefin reactions. With Ki Bum Hong, he characterized secondary catalysis of triazoline fragmenation by water. Matt joined Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in 2007 as a Senior Scientist and moved in 2011 to join the Isotope Synthesis group at Johnson & Johnson PRD. In 2013, he began a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Southern Mississippi, and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2019.
Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2006, 16, 5602.
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 2323.
Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2009, 19, 4971.

Matthew Leighty

Postdoctoral Fellow, 2013, Broad Institute MIT-Harvard, MA
Postdoctoral Scientist, 2010, Vanderbilt University, TN
Ph.D. Chemistry, 2009, University of Kansas, KS
M.S. Chemistry, 2004, University of Kansas, KS
B.S. Chemistry, 2001, Alma College, MI

A Michigan native, Matt Leighty pursued his interest in chemistry as an undergraduate at Alma Colege.  He began graduate studies in medicinal chemistry at the University of Kansas.  Matt's accomplishments include the development of a new protocol for Suzuki-Miyaura couplings to alpha-iodoenaminones, and the use of the Georg amide-aldehyde transformation with the Schwartz reagent on large scale.  He also completed the total synthesis of boehmeriasin A and screened its biological activity.  He joined the group in 2010 and has developed a new enantioselective route to a-oxy amides using Umpolung Amide Synthesis. In 2013, he moved to the Broad Institute of MIT-Harvard, and then accepted a position as Staff Scientist at Kalexsyn in 2014 and in 2019 moved to Cambridge, MA to accept the position of Principal Scientist (Custom Synthesis Group) at Vertex.
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 15233.
Org. Lett. 2014, 16, 4714.

Sergey Tsukanov

Ph.D. Chemistry, 2012, North Carolina State University, NC
M.S. Chemical Technology and Biotechnology (Honors), 2007, Moscow State Academy of Fine Chemical Technology, Russia
B.S. Chemistry & Chemical Technology, 2005, Moscow State Academy of Fine Chemical Technology , Russia

Sergey was born in Moscow, Russia. He completed his undergraduate studies at Moscow State Academy of Fine Chemical Technology and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Chemical Technology in 2005. After graduation, he continued his studies at Moscow State Academy of Fine Chemical Technology, and in 2007, he received a Master of Science in Chemical Technology and Biotechnology with Honors. Upon completion of his Master’s program, Sergey decided to pursue a career in synthetic chemistry and began his graduate studies at North Carolina State University under the supervision of Dr. Daniel L. Comins working on the synthesis of indolizidine alkaloids lepadiformine and 205B. He successfully completed the total synthesis of 205B and received his PhD degree in 2012. Sergey contributed to our work in Umpolung Amide Synthesis by completing the synthesis of a fluorinated version of the natural product feglymycin, a tridecapeptide. In 2013, Sergey received the Lilly Innovation Fellowship Award and transitioned to projects that involved the adaptation of our group's chemistries to continuous processing formats. He accepted a position with the Lilly Chemical Development Group in Indianapolis in 2016 and is currently Director of Chemistry.
Org. Process Res. Dev. 2016, 20, 215.
Org. Synth. 2016, 93, 88.
Org. Synth. 2017, 94, 388.
Org. Process Res. Dev. 2018, 22, 971.

David Rubush

Postdoctoral Scientist, 2012, Vanderbilt University, TN
Ph.D. Chemistry, 2012, Colorado State University, CO
B.S. Chemistry, 2006, Calvin College, MI

David was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He began his training at Calvin College where he worked with Professor Ronald Blankespoor to develop a synthesis of β-alkynals. After receiving his B.S. degree in Chemistry in 2006, he moved to Colorado State University where he pursued graduate studies under Professor Tomislav Rovis. His research focused on the total synthesis of stemocurtisine utilizing an asymmetric intramolecular Stetter reaction. He also developed an asymmetric synthesis of 1,2,4-trioxane anticancer agents through a Brønsted acid catalyzed cascade. David worked on our total synthesis of (+)-zwittermicin A. In 2014, he began at Benedictine College (Chicago, IL) as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry.

Yasunori Toda

Postdoctoral Scholar, 2015, Vanderbilt University, TN
Ph.D. Chemistry, 2013, Tohoku University, Japan
B.S. Chemistry, 2008, Tohoku University, Japan

Yasunori was born and raised in Yamanashi, Japan. He received his B.S. Chemistry degree from Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan) in 2008. He continued into graduate studies at Tohoku, where he worked with Prof. Masahiro Terada, working on the combination of metal complexes and chiral Bronsted acid catalysts. He joined the group in June 2013 and developed the first phosphoramidic acid additions to alkenes using enantioselective Bronsted acid catalysis. In April 2015, he began a position as Assistant Prof. of Chemistry at Shinshu University in Nagano, Japan and is currently Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry & Material Engineering.
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 14734.

Kazuyuki Tokumaru

Ph.D., 2006, Chiba University, Japan
M.S. Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2003, Nagoya City University, Japan
B.S. Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2001, Nagoya City University, Japan

Kazuyuki was born and raised in Nagoya, Japan. He began his training at Nagoya City University, where he worked with Professor Takayuki Shioiri and Professor Toyohiko Aoyama to develop asymmetric phase-transfer catalysis. After receiving his M.S. degree in 2003, he moved to Chiba University, where he worked with Professor Atsushi Nishida. He received Ph.D. in 2006 accomplishing the total synthesis of manzamine A. He is a researcher of pharmaceutical research division of Toray Industries, Inc., Japan and joined the group as a Visiting Scientist in March 2015, and returned to Japan in February 2017 after completing an impactful new series of heterocycle syntheses based on diverted UmAS.
Chem. Sci. 2017, 8, 3187.
Synthesis 2017, 49, 4670.
Chem 2019, 5, 1248.

Mahesh Vishe

Ph.D. Chemistry, 2015, University of Geneva, Switzerland
M.Sc. Chemistry, 2009, SIES College, India
B.Sc. Chemistry, 2007, V.G. Vaze College, India

Mahesh is a native of India. After finishing Bachelors in chemistry from V.G. Vaze College (Mulund) he joined SIES College (SION). After securing a First Class Master’s Degree with distinction in organic chemistry, he joined as a junior research fellow at IIT Bombay in the lab of Prof. Kaliappan. There he focused on the total synthesis of callystatin A and spongidepsin. He subsequently moved to the University of Geneva in Switzerland and worked on the one step synthesis of functionalized macrocycles and their applications in the lab of Prof. Jérôme Lacour to obtain a Ph.D degree. He joined the group in 2016. Mahesh developed the first highly enantioselective BAM-catalyzed addition of nitroalkanes to nitroalkenes, and he used these adducts in UmAS. This uncovered an unusual substrate reduction that occurs under the formally oxidative conditions of the amide bond-forming reaction. He also joined Team CO2-Fixation and discovered a Goldilocks effect with water in the reaction. Early in 2019, he moved to Harvard to work with Matt Shair. In 2020-2021, Mahesh accepted the position of Scientist at Snapdragon Chemistry (Waltham, MA) and his current position is Scientist at C4 Therapeutics (Watertown, MA).
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, 17584

Chem. Sci. 2019, 10, 1138
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 618
Encylopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis 2019

Kalisankar Bera

PD Chemistry, 2015, Universitat Leipzig, Germany
Ph.D. Chemistry, 2014, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India
M.Sc. Chemistry, 2008, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India
B.Sc. Chemistry, 2006, Haldia Government College, India

Kalisankar was born and grew up in Moyna, India. After receiving his M.Sc. in Chemistry from the IIT Madras, he began his PhD in the group of Professor I. N. N. Namboothiri at IIT Bombay in 2008. His research in PhD includes the discovery of organocatalytic asymmetric Michael additions for enantioselective synthesis of multifunctional molecules. In 2015 he joined the group of Professor C. Schneider at Universität Leipzig, Germany as postdoc where he worked on chiral phosphoric acid catalyzed asymmetric reactions. In November, 2016 he joined the group and completed a study begun by Kazuyuki Tokumaru to prepare triazoles using diverted UmAS. He was a driver behind the movement of material toward zwittermicin A, and he contributed to a new enantioselective desymmetrization of cyclohexadienes. In May 2018, he returned to the homeland as a Senior Research Investigator with Syngene International and is currently Group Leader at Aurigene Oncology Limited (Bengaluru, India). In 2020 he accepted the role of Group Leader at Aurigene Oncology Limited, (Bengaluru, India).
Synthesis 2017, 49, 4670.

Rashanique Quarels

Ph.D. Chemistry, 2017, Louisiana State University, LA
B.S. Chemistry, 2012, Southern University and A&M College, LA

Rashanique is a native of New Orleans, LA. At Southern University Rashanique was a Ronald E. McNair Scholar (2009), and American Chemical Society Scholar (2011), and a UNCF/Merck Fellow (2011). After receiving her Bachelors in Chemistry with Honors from Southern University she joined the chemistry doctoral program at Louisiana State University. There her doctoral work focused on the development of new methodologies for the functionalization of Au(111) surfaces using carbon centered radicals and the remote activation of 4-(4-methoxyphenyl)-3- butenylthioglycosides under the direction of Professor Justin Ragains. Rashanique was awarded an inaugural Vanderbilt Academic Pathways Fellowship in March 2017 and joined the group in August 2017. She is currently Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Rowan University (Rowan, NJ) here.

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 2025, 64, e202508819