简介

Dr. Kerns’ research is focused in three programmatic areas. One research program is focused on antibiotic resistance and anti-infective drug discovery. This program employs synthetic chemistry as the foundation of an interdisciplinary strategy utilizing the design, synthesis and evaluation of novel antibiotics, analogs and molecular probes to study bacterial resistance mechanisms and to explore the development of new agents that are active against drug-resistant pathogens. A second area of study in the Kern laboratory focuses on biologically important glycoconjugates. An emphasis within this program is the evaluation of new approaches to inhibit cellular interactions and biological processes mediated by cell surface glycosaminoglycans. The Kerns group is developing new strategies to design and synthesize non-polyanionic molecules that block or modulate physiological processes mediated by glycosaminoglycan-protein interactions. The Kerns group also provides Medicinal Chemistry expertise and support for follow-up to high throughput screening and for a number of interdisciplinary, translational research projects focused on the design, synthesis and evaluation of novel bioactive small molecules and molecular probes. Ongoing studies include optimizing lead structures for use as chemical probes to validate new drug targets and characterizing structure-function relationships for lead structures toward the discovery of new therapeutics for a number of diseases including infectious diseases, inflammatory lung disease, diabetes, obesity and cancer. BS, Chemistry, Iowa State University, Department of Chemistry, 1987-1991 PhD, Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry (NIH Predoctoral Fellow, Traineeship in Biotechnology) The University of Iowa, College of Pharmacy, 1992-1996