David A. Vosburg Research

Research Description

Students in the Vosburg lab seek to make medicinally useful molecules in new ways. We especially try to make them in biomimetic ways, using chemistry that imitates how such molecules are believed to be formed naturally in plants. In ideal cases, it almost seems like the molecules are making themselves! We also seek to use environmentally friendly methods that minimize waste, toxicity and hazards. Some of our target molecules can be used to fight inflammation, bacteria, fungi, or tuberculosis. Often we make molecules that no one else has ever made before!

Research Interests

• natural product synthesis
• natural product biosynthesis
• biomimetic cyclizations
• cascade reactions
• green chemistry
• molecular self-assembly
• reaction development
• asymmetric catalysis
• structure, strain, and reactivity of organic molecules

Current Research Students

• Kasey Chung ’25
• Grant Miller (Pomona ’25)
• Jinghan Chen (Pomona ’26)
• Nora O’Connor ’26
• Lan Zhu (Pomona ’26)
• Johnson Ho ’27
• Angela Milo ’28

Former Research Students

• Paul Dossa ’06
• Kaitlyn Gray ’06
• Martha Cavanaugh-O’Keefe ’07
• Frances Hocutt ’07
• Kathryn (Poindexter) Scherpelz (Pomona ’07)
• Karen (Brown) Morrison ’08
• Julian Evans ’08 (joint research with Prof. Cave)
• Sam “Bunny” Sobelman ’08
• Alison Lee ’09
• Jonathan Litz ’09
• Ken Loh ’09
• Rachel Nishimura ’09
• Ryan Pakula ’09
• Seanna Vine ’09 (joint research with Prof. Cave)
• Terence Wong ’09
• Andrew Chung ’10
• Helen Fitzmaurice ’10
• Chiara Giammanco ’10
• Eric Nacsa ’10
• Camille Sultana ’10
• Athena Anderson ’11
• Anna Cunningham ’11
• Laura Poindexter ’11
• Brigid Poling ’11
• Zara Seibel ’11
• Kanny Wan ’11
• Tom Aldrich ’12 (joint research with Prof. Maloney)
• Alix Chan ’12
• Haley Ham ’12
• Kim Quach ’12
• Jeep Srisuknimit ’12
• Mary Van Vleet ’12
• Erin Chen (Mt. SAC ’11, UCLA ’13)
• Cory Evans-Klock ’13
• Katie Hilleke ’13
• Alex Kreisman (Pitzer ’13)
• Mika Nakashige (Williams ’13)
• Bethany Okada ’13
• Bryan Visser ’13
• Nick Chiappini (Drew ’14)
• Brian Fielder ’14
• Eva Gao ’14
• Jonathan Keim (Baylor ’14)
• Julia Lee ’14
• Katherine Muller ’14
• Anastasia Patterson ’14
• Christian Stevens ’14
• Emily Yu (Mt. SAC ’12, UCLA ’14)
• Coline Devin ’15
• Eun Bin Go ’15
• Grace Kim ‘(Williams ’15)
• Mary May ’15
• Arthur Chang ’16
• Stephanie Cheng (Mt. SAC ’14, USC’16)
• Max Frenkel ’16
• Shannon Wetzler ’16
• Annisa Dea ’17
• Lee Joon Kim ’17
• Kareesa Kron ’18
• Geneva Miller ’18
• Omar Velazquez ’18
• Giovanni Castro ’19
• Johnson Hoang ’20
• Emily Shimizu ’20
• Josh Hunter ’21
• Keo Chui ’22
• Kelvin Lee ’22
• Michelle Lee ’22
• Celine Wang ’22
• Eleanor Bentley ’23
• Eugene Gao ’23
• Nate Luis ’23
• Cooper Nissenbaum ’23
• Sydney Neibert ’24
• Luke Stemple ’24
• Tanner Gasteazoro ’25
• Oriole Song ’25