Research labs at Virginia Commonwealth University .

Frank Gupton Research Group

Pharmaceutical engineeringProcess chemistryContinuous manufacturing

Frank Gupton · Professor

Gupton treats medicine affordability as a chemistry and engineering challenge. Through VCU’s Medicines for All Institute, his team redesigns routes for producing essential pharmaceutical ingredients, examining expensive starting materials, reaction steps, solvent use, and scale-up. VCU describes recent work on improving the synthesis of lenacapavir, alongside a broader record of process improvements for global-health medicines. The research moves from small laboratory batches toward reliable manufacturing methods. Its appeal lies in connecting detailed synthetic chemistry with a measurable practical goal: making established medicines easier and less costly to produce.

RTIndependently curated · Unclaimed

Marconi Laboratory

Tick-borne diseaseVaccine developmentDiagnostics

Richard T. Marconi · Professor

Marconi investigates how tick-borne pathogens cause disease and how their biology can support better vaccines and tests. His laboratory studies pathogenic spirochetes, including the organisms associated with Lyme disease, alongside virulence and gene regulation. A VCU research update describes work on Babesiosis diagnostics using selected regions of surface proteins combined into a chimeric peptide antigen. The aim is to support antibody detection in formats such as ELISA and lateral-flow tests. This group connects molecular mechanisms of infection with practical diagnostic design and vaccine research for human and veterinary health.

RBIndependently curated · Unclaimed

Ram B. Gupta Research Group

BatteriesElectrochemistrySustainable energy

Ram B. Gupta · Professor

A battery research question can start inside the factory: how does making an electrode material differently change the battery that follows? Gupta researches batteries, electrochemistry, sustainable energy, and biofuels. VCU has described his collaboration on new ways to synthesize lithium-ion cathode materials, linking reactor and manufacturing design with battery durability, cost, and safety goals. His broader interests also include supercritical extraction and biomaterials. For prospective researchers, the distinguishing connection is between chemical processing and energy materials, with manufacturing methods treated as part of the scientific problem rather than an afterthought.

SSIndependently curated · Unclaimed

Sarah Spiegel Research Group

Lipid signalingSphingosine-1-phosphateCancer biology

Sarah Spiegel · Professor

A lipid can be much more than a structural part of a cell: it can carry a signal that changes cell behavior. Spiegel investigates sphingosine-1-phosphate, or S1P, and the enzymes that produce it. Her laboratory examines how this signaling system connects inflammation with cancer progression, metastasis, obesity, and metabolic and liver diseases. The work brings lipid metabolism and signal transduction together around mechanisms of disease. Researchers interested in biochemical pathways can explore how a small signaling molecule influences several distinct biological processes and why those connections matter for potential therapeutic targets.

SSIndependently curated · Unclaimed

Stephen S. Fong Research Group

Systems biologyMetabolic engineeringComputational modeling

Stephen S. Fong · Professor

Fong asks how microbial metabolism can be redesigned to produce useful chemicals. His research combines systems biology, computational metabolic models, and experimental strain development, connecting predictions about biochemical networks with engineered organisms. VCU describes a background that includes designing chemical production in Escherichia coli and broader work on modifying microorganisms for products ranging from fermentation outputs to fuels. This offers a research intersection between chemical engineering and biology: understanding an organism as a coordinated metabolic system, then investigating how changes to that system alter what it can manufacture.