POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS:

The Nguyen Group welcomes postdoctoral applications at any time, but two postdoctoral positions are currently available in the chemical synthesis of oligosaccharides and sulfated oligosaccharides. The goals of the project are (1) to prepare panels of oligosaccharides to examine their capacity as vaccine adjuvants; (2) to prepare panels of sulfated oligosaccharides to examine their ability as potent inhibitors of heparanase and SARS-CoV-2 spike protein as well as to evaluate their ability to prevent p-tau-elicited neurotoxicity for potential treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The ultimate aim is to develop carbohydrate-based therapeutics for various diseases.

To apply, please attach the following attachments as pdf to Prof. Nguyen (email: hmnguyen@wayne.edu)

  • CV – including three references who will provide recommendation upon request
  • Research Summary – a two page summary of your graduate and/or postdoctoral research

GROUP NEWS:

12/2023: We welcome three first year graduate students: Tony Faraj (joint graduate student with Prof. Christy Chow), Rollanda Oreoluwa Tella, and Dylan Yost‐Slinker to the group!

11/2023: Congratulations to Madhawee Ketipe Arachchi for successfully defending her Ph.D. thesis. Best of luck with your new adventure at AAPharmSyn!

10/2023: Our group paper “Rhodium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Synthesis of 1,2-Disubstituted Allylic Fluorides” in collaboration with the Gutierrez group at Texas A&M University has been published online in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Congratulations Fuad and Achyut! Great job for working together to finish this paper.

09/2023: Our group paper on “Heparan Sulfate Mimicking Glycopolymers Bind SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein in a Length and Sulfation Pattern Depedent Manner” has been accepted in ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters. Congratulations, Hawau, Jiayi, Ravi, and Eric!

09/2023: Sachini Rodrigo’s paper on “Overcoming the Potential Window-Limited Functional Group Compatibility by Alternating Current Electrolysis” has been published in Journal of the American Chemical Society. Congratulations, Sachini!

09/2023: Congratulations to Sachini Rodrigo for successfully defending her Ph.D. thesis! Sachini is a joint graduate student in the Long group and the Nguyen group

08/2023: Madhawee Arachchi’s paper on “Scope and Mechanistic Probe into Asymmetric Synthesis of alpha-Trisubstituted-alpha-Tertiary Amines by Rhodium Catalysis” has been published in Journal of the American Chemical Society. Congratulations, Madhawee!

08/2023: The group received NIH R35 MIRA grant from National Institute of General Medical Sciences to support our carbohydrate glycosylation and sulfated glycan projects!

07/2023: Joseph Wakpal’s paper on “Rational Design and Expedient Synthesis of Heparan Sulfate Mimetics from Natural Aminoglycosides for Structure and Activity Relationship Studies” has been published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Congratulations, Joseph!

06/2023: Congratulations to Joseph Wakpal for winning best poster at Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) Carbohydrates Meeting!

12/2022: We welcome five first year graduate students: Leila Almounajed, Felix Chukwu, Michael Hotor, Livia Philip, and April Tapayan to the group!

11/2022: Jiayi’s review paper on her PhD project “Phenanthroline Catalysis in Stereoselective 1,2-cis Glycosylations”  has been published in ASAP in Accounts of Chemical Research. Congratulations, Jiayi!

08/2022: Dr. Richard Schaugaard starts his position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Sam Houston State University. Good luck, Prof. Schaugaard!

07/2022: Dr. Hengfu Xu accepted the Senior Scientist position at ASYMCHEM in China. Good luck, Hengfu!

07/2022: Congratulations to Jiayi Li for successfully defending her Ph.D. thesis. Best of luck with your new adventure as a postdoctoral in the lab of Prof. Alison Wendlandt in the Department of Chemistry at MIT. Good luck, Dr. Li!

06/2022: The group received another NIH R01 grant from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to support our carbohydrate vaccine adjuvant project!  This project is in collaboration with my former colleague, Prof. Steve Varga, at St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital.

06/2022: Our group paper “Heparan Sulfate Mimicking Glycopolymer Prevents Pancreatic Beta Cell Destruction and Suppresses Inflammatory Cytokine Expression in Islets under the Challenge of Upregulated Heparanase” in collaboration with the Zhang group in the Center of Molecular Medicine and Genetics at Wayne State University College of Medicine has been published in ASAP in ACS Chemical Biology. Congratulations Ravi, Zhenfeng, and Eric! Great work for working together to finish this paper.

04/2022: Our group paper “Stereoselective 1,2-cis Furanosylations Catalyzed by Phenanthroline” in collaboration with the Schlegel group has been published in ASAP in Journal of the American Chemical Society. Congratulations, Hengfu, Richard, and Jiayi! Great work for working together to finish this paper.

12/2021: Congratulations to Paul DeMent for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis. Best of luck with your new adventure as a postdoctoral in the lab of Victor Pike in the PET Imaging Lab at NIH. Good luck, Dr. DeMent!

12/2021: We welcome two first year graduate students:  Chris Harnadek and Joseph Lange to the group!

08/2021: Our group paper “Alkyl Radical-Free Cu(I) Photocatalytic Cross-Coupling: A Theoretical Study of Anomerically Specific Photocatalyzed Glycosylation of Pyranosyl Bromide” in collaboration with the Schlegel group has been published in ASAP in Inorganic Chemistry. Congratulations, Richard!

07/2021: Our group paper “Iridium-Catalyzed Enantioselective Allylic Substitutions of Racemic, Branched Trichloroacetimidates with Heteroatom Nucleophiles: Formation of Allylic C-O, C-N, and C-S Bonds” has been published in ASAP in Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis. Congratulations, Madhawee!

07/2021: Our group paper “A Mechanistic Probe into 1,2-cis Glycoside Formation Catalyzed by Phenanthroline and Further Expansion of Scope” has been published in ASAP in Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis. Jiayi’s paper has been chosen as a very important publication. Congratulations, Jiayi!

02/2021: Our group paper in collaboration with the Schlegel groups here at Wayne State University, “Phenanthroline-Catalyzed Stereoselective Formation of alpha-1,2-cis 2-Deoxy-2-Fluoro Glycosides,” has been published in ASAP in ACS Catalysis. Congratulations Paul, Chenlu, Joseph, and Richard!

12/2020: We welcome first year graduate students: Hawau Abdulsalam and Teresa Zimmerman (co-advising with Christy Chow) to the Nguyen group!

10/2020: Our paper, “Advances in Nucleophilic Allylic Fluorination”, has been published in ACS Catalysis ASAP. Congratulations, Alex, Connor, and Fuad! Kudo to Fuad and Connor for getting a paper published as first year graduate students during the pandemic and Alex for leading the team to write this Perspective.

09/2020: Our joint group paper with the Zhang group here at Wayne State University School of Medicine, “The UPR Transducer IRE1 Promotes Breast Cancer Malignancy by Degrading Tumor Suppressor microRNAs”, has been published in iScience

08/2020: Congratulations to Alex Sorlin for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis. Best of luck with your new adventure in the lab of Prof. David Wilson in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California at San Francisco. Good luck, Dr. Sorlin!

07/2020: Our joint group paper with the Luo group here at Wayne State University, “Alternating Current Electrolysis for Organic Electrosynthesis: Trfluoromethylation of (Hetero)arenes”, has been accepted for publication in Organic Letters. Congratulations Sachini, Nan, Jason and Disni!

05/2020: Our group paper in collaboration with the Luo and Schlegel groups here at Wayne State University, “Diastereoselective sp3 C-O Bond Formation via Visible Light-Induced, Copper-Catalyzed Cross Couplings of Glycosyl Bromides with Aliphatic Alcohols,” has been published in ASAP in ACS Catalysis. Congratulations, Fei, Jalen, Ravi, Hengfu, and Richard!

04/2020: Our group paper in collaboration with the Zhang group here at Wayne State University School of Medicine and with the Vlodavsky group at Technion, “Modulating Heparanase Activity: Tuning Sulfation Pattern and Glycosidic Linkage of Oligosaccharides”, has been published in Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Congratulations Sanyong, Jiayi, and Ravi!

04/2020: The group received another NIH R01 grant to support our sulfated aminoglycan project!  Thank you everyone for your hard work.

12/2019: Congratulations to Jason Mixdorf for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis. Best of luck with your new adventure in the lab of Prof. Brad Christian at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, University of Wisconsin at Madison. Good luck, Dr. Mixdorf!

12/2019: We welcome first year graduate students: Connor, Chenlu, Fuad, and Joseph to the Nguyen group!

10/2019: Our group paper in collaboration with the Stockdill group here at Wayne State University, “Facile Triflic-Acid-Catalyzed alpha-1,2-Cis-Thiol Glycosylations: Scope and Application to the Synthesis of S-Linked Oligosaccharides, Glycolipids, Sublancin Glycopeptide, and Tn/Tf Antigens”, has been accepted for publication in Chemical Science. Congratulations Sanyong, Ganesh, and Eric!

08/2019: Our NIH R01 grant has been renewed to support our heparanase project in the lab!!!

08/2019: Our group paper in collaboration with the Gutierrez group at University of Maryland, “The Role of Trichloroacetimidate to Enable Iridium-Catalyzed Regio- and Enantioselective Allylic Fluorination: A Combined Experimental and Computational Study” has been accepted for publication in JACS. Congratulations Alexandre and Jason!

04/2019: Our group paper in collaboration with the Schlegel group here at Wayne State University, “Phenanthroline-Catalyzed Stereoretentive Glycosylations.” has been published in early review in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Congratulations to Fei, Jiayi, Paul, and Tu!

02/2019: Our group paper in collaboration with the Schlegel group here at Wayne State University, “Are Brønsted Acids the True Promoter of Metal Triflate Catalyzed Glycosylations? A Mechanistic Probe into 1,2-cis-Aminoglycoside Formation by Nickel Triflate.” has been accepted for publication in ACS Catalysis. Congratulations to Eric and Tu!