Paul J. Hergenrother Research Group

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Which small organic compounds selectively kill cancer cells or drug-resistant bacteria and by what mechanisms? Hergenrother's group designs, synthesizes, and evaluates organic molecules with novel biological properties, including enzyme modulators and anticancer and antibacterial compounds. Projects include Complexity-to-Diversity (CtD) synthesis of diverse compounds from natural products and high-throughput screening to identify biologically active molecules. Researchers apply structure-based design, medicinal chemistry, and biological assays, including tests on patient samples, to identify personalized anticancer targets such as procaspase-3 activation and NQO1-selective agents. The group develops predictive rules and synthesis strategies to produce compounds active against Gram-negative pathogens.