Saikiran joined the PhD track organic chemistry graduate program at Oregon State University in the Fall of 2023 and he joined the Blakemore Research Group soon thereafter. He is currently working on a reconstitutive synthesis of the vitamin D triene system via carbenoid eliminative cross-coupling.

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Paul began his independent academic career as a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Leeds (UK) just after 9/11 and returned to the US a few years later to join the faculty at OSU in 2005. Paul's research is focused on new methods and concepts for the absolute control of molecular constitution and stereochemistry and he also maintains a healthy interest in target directed synthesis. From 2021 to 2023, Paul worked as a Program Director for the Chemical Synthesis and Chemical Catalysis programs of the Division of Chemistry at the National Science Foundation in metropolitan Washington, D.C. Outside of chemistry, Paul is a keen guitar enthusiast and he enjoys baseball (#ITFDB), modern literature, and exploring the USA and beyond.

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Vijaya Prasanna Dasari was born in Andhra Pradesh, India, in 1998. She received her BS degree in 2020 and MS degree (in Organic Chemistry) in 2022 from Osmania University, Hyderabad. After her MS work, Prasanna worked as a research intern for 6 months at Osmania University, under the guidance of Dr. Muralidhar Reddy, on the synthesis of indole-methane compounds and 3-substituted lawsones.

Prasanna then moved to the CSIR-Indian Institute Of Chemical Technology as a Project Associate and worked under the guidance of Dr .B.V. Subba Reddy; here, her work focussed on the synthesis of biaryl intermediates for pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals.

Prasanna joined the graduate program at Oregon State University in Fall 2024 where she conducts PhD-track thesis research work in the Blakemore Research Group. Prasanna's work is currently focused on the total synthesis and investigation of the chalaniline family of natural product molecules.

Pratibha Gupta was born in 1999 in Uttar Pradesh, India, and brought up in Nashik Maharashtra. She received a BS degree in Chemistry from the University of Pune in 2018 and an MS degree in Medicinal Chemistry in 2020 from Savitribai Phule Pune University, Maharashtra. During her Masters thesis work, she worked on the synthesis of pyrrolizidinones under the guidance of Prof. Suresh Waghmode. After completing her MS degree, she joined Aurigene Oncology (formerly Aurigene Discovery, a subsidiary of Dr. Reddy's Laboratory), in Bangalore where she worked as a medicinal chemist with a focus on oncology. In 2022, she switched to work at Syngene International, also in Bangalore.

Pratibha joined the graduate program at Oregon State University in Fall 2024 where she conducts PhD-track thesis research work in the Blakemore Research Group. Pratibha's work is focused on the total synthesis of the anticancer natural epoxyquinol molecule mensacarcin.

Pannaporn Prapapongpan (Kik) was born in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1995. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 2018 from Mahidol University International College (MUIC), Thailand. During her undergraduate study, she worked on the extraction, purification, structural elucidation, and quantification of biologically active pyranocoumarins from Clausena excavata under Dr. Pitak Chuawong’s laboratory at Kasetsart University. In early 2020, she started PhD studies at Oregon State University and joined the Blakemore Research Group during Summer 2021. She is currently working on a target directed synthesis of chalaniline A and investigating the chemistry of ferrocenyl xanthone systems.

"Total Synthesis of Chalaniline A: An Aminofulvene Fused Chromone from Vorinostat-Treated Fungus Chalara sp. 6661," Prapapongpan, P.; Vanthiya, V.; Kwon, O.-S.; Zakharov, L. N.; Loesgen, S.; Blakemore,* P. R. J. Org. Chem. 2024, 89, 14601-14605. [LINK]

"Synthesis of [28-13C]-24-Methylenecholesterol Using 1-tert-Butyl-1H-tetrazol-5-yl [13C]-Methyl Sulfone to Methylenate an Isopropyl Ketone Intermediate," Quiroz, E. E.; Prapapongpan, P.; Resch, G.; Chakrabarti, P.; Sagili, R. R.; Blakemore,* P. R. ARKIVOC 2024, (2), 202312100. [LINK][SI]

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