Chemistry @ IU

Contact Information:

(812) 856-5620
brownlcb@indiana.edu
Chemistry A112
 

Laura Brown, Ph.D. received her B.S. in chemistry at Illinois Wesleyan University. During the fall of her sophomore year, she joined the research group of Professor Ram S. Mohan where her research was focused on mild and chemoselective reactions of acetals and ketals promoted by bismuth salts. She then headed to the east coast for graduate school at Boston College, where she earned her Ph.D. in organic chemistry with Professor Amir H. Hoveyda in 2008. Her graduate research was focused on the field of enantioselective catalysis, and she developed two new methods for the catalytic, enantioselective addition of alkyl nucleophiles to ketone and ketoimine substrates.

During her time at BC, she developed an interest in the chemistry and biosynthesis of natural products which led her to the laboratory of Professor Jon Clardy at Harvard Medical School, where she was awarded a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship. She worked jointly with Dr. Michael Fischbach, who is now an Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Laura’s postdoctoral research was broadly focused on natural products discovery and biosynthesis. Through a combination of bioinformatic analysis, biochemical, microbiological, and modern analytical techniques, she elucidated the biosynthesis of a class of peptide-derived natural products, discovered two new natural products, produced by bacterial members of the human microbiome, and characterized a regulator of a developmental switch of an important model organism.

Throughout her graduate and post-doctoral studies, Laura maintained an interest in undergraduate education, and she had the good fortune of being provided with many meaningful teaching and mentoring opportunities. She is excited to join the teaching faculty at IU, and is looking forward to leading an active undergraduate research group, where she plans to pursue her interests in organic chemistry and the chemistry of natural products.

Recent Teaching Activities

Publications

"Thirteen Posttranslational Modifications Convert a Fourteen-Residue Peptide into the Antibiotic Thiocillin" L. C. Wieland Brown, M. G. Acker, J. Clardy, C. T. Walsh, M. A. Fischbach, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009, 106, 2549-2553.

"Ag-Catalyzed Diastereo- and Enantioselective Vinylogous Mannich Reactions of a-Ketoimine Esters. Development of a Method and Investigation of its Mechanism" L. C. Wieland, E. M. Vieira, M. L. Snapper, A. H. Hoveyda Journal of the American Chemical Society 2009, 131, 570–576.

"Al-Catalyzed Enantioselective Alkylation of a-Ketoesters by Dialkylzinc Reagents. Enhancement of Enantioselectivity and Reactivity by an Achiral Lewis Base Additive" L. C. Wieland, H. Deng, M. L. Snapper, A. H. Hoveyda Journal of the American Chemical Society 2005, 127, 15453-15456.

"Applications of Bismuth(III) Compounds in Organic Synthesis" N. M. Leonard, L. C. Wieland, R. S. Mohan Tetrahderon 2002, 58, 8373-8397.

"Bismuth Triflate Catalyzed Allylation of Acetals: A Simple and Mild Method for Synthesis of Homoallyl Ethers" L. C. Wieland, H. M. Zerth, R. S. Mohan Tetrahedron Letters 2002, 43, 4597-4600.

"A Simple and Efficient Chemoselective Method for the Catalytic Deprotection of Acetals and Ketals Using Bismuth Triflate" M. D. Carrigan, D. Sarapa, L. C. Wieland, R. S. Mohan Journal of Organic Chemistry 2002, 67, 1027-1030.

"A Simple Chemoselective Method for the Deprotection of Acyclic Acetals Using Bismuth Nitrate Pentahydrate" K. J. Eash, M. S. Pulia, L. C. Wieland, R. S. Mohan Journal of Organic Chemistry 2000, 65, 8399-8401.

Awards

• NIH Ruth K. Kirschstein NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship (Harvard Medical School) 2009 - 2011
• Roche Biosciences Excellence in Chemistry Award (Boston College) 2007
• Novartis Graduate Fellowship in Organic Chemistry (Boston College) 2006 - 2007
• Phi Beta Kappa (Illinois Wesleyan University) inducted 2001
• American Chemical Society Polymer Education Committee honor for outstanding performance in organic chemistry (Illinois Wesleyan University) 2000

Highlights