José L. Giner
Associate Professor
416 Jahn Laboratory
470-6895
jlginer@syr.edu
Ph. D., 1991, Stanford University; Postdoctoral Fellow, ETH-Zurich, 1991-1993; Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University, 1993-1995.
As a bioorganic chemist José Giner works at the interface of organic chemistry and biology. The organic chemistry of life is the central theme of a wide range of research interests. Biologically active natural products, such as natural insecticides from euphorbias and petunias, and antiviral sterols from marine sponges, are the subjects of biosynthetic studies. These studies focus on enzyme catalyzed reactions and make use of the tools of physical organic chemistry and mechanistic enzymology to shed light on their details. An important technique for this research is NMR spectroscopy. Understanding the ways used by nature to generate structural diversity in natural products is the goal of these studies. A related topic is the application of biosynthetic knowledge to the synthesis of interesting natural products (biomimetic synthesis). Dr. Giner's research emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration. The role of unusual marine sterols in environmentally dangerous algae is being studied together with marine biologists. Investigations in the chemical ecology of natural products used as plant defenses against insects and mamalian predators are in progress with members of the biology faculty. Other recent collaborations involve immune system stimulants and drugs targeting breast cancer.
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Representative Publications
Giner, J.-L.; Kehbein, K. A.; Cook, J. A.; Smith, M. C.; Vlahos, C. J.; Badwey, J. A., "Synthesis of fluorescent derivatives of wortmannin and demethoxyviridin as probes for phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase", Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2006, 16, 2518-2521.
Giner, J.-L.,”Tetrahydropyran Formation by Rearrangement of an Epoxy Ester: A Model for the Biosynthesis of Marine Polyether Toxins”, J. Org. Chem. 2005, 70, 721-724.
Giner, J.-L.; Zhao, H., “Detailed Sterol Compositions of Two Pathogenic Rust Fungi,” Lipids 2004, 39, 763-767.
Giner, J.-L.; Faraldo, J.A.; Boyer, G.L., "Unique Sterols of the Toxic Dinoflagellate Gymnodinium breve (Dinophyceae): A Defensive Function for Unusual Marine Sterols?", J. Phycol. 2003, 39, 315-319.
Giner, J.-L.; William V. Ferris, J.; Mullins, J.J., "Synthesis of 2-Methyl-D-erythritol via Epoxy Ester-Orthoester Rearrangement", J. Org. Chem. 2002, 67, 4856-4859.
Giner, J.-L.; Faraldos, J.A., "A Biomimetic Approach to the Synthesis of an Antiviral Marine Steroidal Orthoester", J. Org. Chem. 2002, 67, 2717-2720.
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