The Synthetic Organic Chemistry program supports the work of Dr. James Gloer. Gloer, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Iowa, is looking for novel and biologically active compounds from fungi. Gloer has identified a new source of natural products in fungal sclerotia, physiological structures associated with fungi that have been overlooked by other natural products chemists. Sclerotial extracts from plant pathogenic and stored-product fungi will be tested for insect antifeedant activity. Active samples will be chromatographed to find the active components of the extracts. Structure analysis will be performed on the new compounds isolated. Examination of the source of these new metabolites will focus on the particular fungal physiological structure that produces the compounds in order to generate fundamental new knowledge on the origins and biosignificance of these compounds in Nature.
