Members
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Glenn C. Micalizio, Ph.D.
Prof. Micalizio is the Director of the Robert A. Mah Molecular Innovation Center located within the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building at the University of California Irvine, and he holds the Susan and Henry Samueli Endowed Chair in Integrative Health. His laboratory is focused on creating new reaction methods and synthesis strategies to facility the construction of complex natural products and natural product-inspired molecules of potential therapeutic relevance. In essence, their advances in foundational chemical science are viewed as valuable tools that combine to establish platform technology of value in medicinal discovery. The advances in chemical synthesis that afford novel retrosynthetic relationships are particularly attractive to the group, providing means to prepare molecular systems that are otherwise quite challenging/costly to synthesize. It is their belief that such contributions can have broad impact in organic chemistry with potential to shape the future of medicinal chemistry and drug discovery.
While there are many types of reactions that the Micalizio laboratory has directed attention toward, having established >40 stereoselective transformations to date, they enthusiastically pursue the creation of new reaction methods and synthesis strategies that solve challenging problems associated with stereoselectivity and regiocontrol during the course of carbon–carbon bond formation. To date, they have established reactions of broad utility for applications that span heterocycle synthesis, polyketide assembly, as well as terpenoid construction. Please see the publications listed on this site for more information (this tab includes graphical abstracts for most publications).
CURRENT MEMBERS
Jacob Kim, Ph.D.
Dr. Kim recieved his doctorate from the University of California Los Angeles in 2025, where he completed doctoral studies in the laboratory of Professor Ohyun Kwon. In October 0f 2025, Dr. Kim began postdoctoral studies in the Micalizio laboratory in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UCI. His studies are focused on development of a new reaction cascade for the stereoselective construction of functionalized heterocycles and the application of this reaction to drive the discovery of a new class of anti-cancer agent.
• jacobmk2@uci.edu
Bryant Lim, Ph.D.
Dr. Lim received his doctorate from the University of California, Irvine, where his graduate studies were completed in the laboratory of Professor Scott Rychnovsky. In April of 2025, Dr. Lim began an appointment as a postdoctoral associate in the Micalizio laboratory, where his studies have been focused on the development of a new method for stereoselective convergent coupling and the investigation of that reactivity in the context of solving a series of complex problems in natural product and function-oriented synthesis.
• limb3@uci.edu
ALUMNI
Ph.D. Students
Adilah Bahadoor, Ph.D. 2007
Professional appointment:
Infinity Pharmaceuticals
National Research Council Canada
Justin Belardi, Ph.D. 2009
Professional appointments:
Merck Research Laboratories
Knopp Biosciences
Central Catholic High School
Andrea R. Bucknam, Ph.D. 2025
Professional appointment:
Jnana Therapeutics/Otsuka Pharmaceuticals
Ming Chen, Ph.D. 2012
Postdoctoral study:
Prof. Amos B. Smith (UPenn)
Professional appointment:
Pfizer Inc.
Vertex
Matthew Kier, Ph.D. 2020
Professional appointment:
Hansoh Bio
Wan Shin Kim, Ph.D. 2019
Professional appointment:
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals
Robert Leon, Ph.D. 2021
Professional appointment:
Enanta Pharmaceuticals
Lauren Markham, Ph.D. 2023
Professional appointment:
Choate Hall & Steward, LLC.
Martin McLaughlin, Ph.D. 2010
Postdoctoral study:
Prof. Erick M. Carreira (ETH Zürich)
Professional appointment:
BASF (Germany)
Adam Millham, Ph.D. 2022
Professional appointment:
Dicerna
Joshua Nicholson, Ph.D. 2024
Professional appointment:
Jnana Therapeutics/Otsuka Pharmaceuticals
Lark Perez, Ph.D. 2008
Postdoctoral study:
Prof. Martin Semmelhack (Princeton)
Professional appointment:
Rowan University (Asst. Prof.)
Holly Reichard, Ph.D. 2010
Professional appointments:
Envoy Pharmaceuticals
Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Neurocrine Biosciences
Zachary Shalit, Ph.D. 2022
Professional appointment:
Treeline Biosciences
Heidi Shimp, Ph.D. 2008
Professional appointment:
Bristol Myers-Squibb
Zachary Stemple, Ph.D. 2024
Professional appointment:
AstraZeneca
Masayuki Takahashi, Ph.D. 2010
Postdoctoral study:
Prof. William R. Roush (Scripps)
Professional appointment:
Otsuka Pharmaceuticals
HtooTint Wai, Ph.D. 2022
Professional appointment:
Treeline Biosciences
Postdoctoral Associates
Claudio Aquino, Ph.D. 2009 – University of Naples
Graduate mentor: Prof. Ettore Novellino
Professional appointment:
DiCE Molecules
Neuron23 Inc.
Allan Barlan, Ph.D. 2008 – University of Chicago
Graduate mentor: Prof. Hisashi Yamamoto
Professional appointment:
Defense Intelligence Agency
Daniel Canterbury, Ph.D. 2008 – University of Rochester
Graduate mentor: Prof. Alison Frontier
Professional appointment:
Pfizer Inc.
Ibrahim Celik, Ph.D. 2022 – Bergische Universität Wuppertal
Graduate mentor: Prof. Stefan Kirsch
Postdoctoral mentor: Prof. Christopher Vanderwal (University of California Irvine)
Professional appointment:
Evonik
Xiayun Cheng, Ph.D. Ph.D. 2013 – University of Vermont
Graduate mentor: Prof. Stephen P. Waters
Professional appointment:
Pfizer Inc.
Kang Du, Ph.D. Ph.D. 2016 – Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry
Graduate mentor: Prof. Wenjun Tang
Professional Appointment:
Westlake University
Timothy Fazekas, Ph.D. Ph.D. 2021 – University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)
Graduate mentor: Prof. Erik Alexanian)
Professional appointment:
Metro International Biotech
Stephen Greszler, Ph.D. Ph.D. 2010 – University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)
Graduate mentor: Prof. Jeffrey Johnson
Professional appointment:
AbbVie
Valer Jeso, Ph.D. Ph.D. 2009 – The Scripps Research Institute
Graduate mentor: Prof. K. C. Nicolaou
Professional appointment:
GlaxoSmithKline
Rajdip Karmakar, Ph.D. Ph.D. 2017 – University of Illinois, Chicago
Graduate mentor: Prof. Daesung Lee
Professional appointment:
TCG Lifesciences
Ozora Kubo, Ph.D. Ph.D. 2011 – Osaka University
Graduate mentor: Prof. Hiromichi Fujioka
Professional appointment:
Rohto Pharmaceuticals
Todd Macklin, Ph.D. Ph.D. 2007 – Queens University
Graduate mentor: Prof. Victor Snieckus
Professional appointments:
Envoy Pharmaceuticals
Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Dechert LLP
Haruki Mizoguchi, Ph.D. Ph.D. 2013 – Hokkaido University (Japan)
Graduate mentor: Professor Hideaki Oikawa and Prof. Hiroki Oguri)
Professional appointment:
Assistant Professor – Okayama University (Japan)
Natasha F. O’Rourke, Ph.D. 2014 – University of Victoria (Canada)
Graduate mentor: Prof. Jeremy E. Wulff
Professional appointment:
Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Subhas Chandra Pan, Ph.D. 2008 – Max-Planck-Institut
Für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim an der Ruhr
Graduate mentor: Prof. Benjamin List
Previous postdoctoral mentor:
Prof. E. J. Corey (Harvard University)
Professional appointment:
IIT – Guwahati (Professor)
Matthew Scheideman, Ph.D. Ph.D. 2005 – University of Michigan
Graduate mentor: Prof. Edwin Vedejs
Professional appointments:
Rib-X Pharmaceuticals
Otsuka Pharmaceuticals
Cooley LLP
Rosa Taboada, Ph.D. Ph.D. 2004 – University of Connecticut
Graduate mentor: Prof. Amy Howell
Michael Tarselli, Ph.D. Ph.D. 2009 – University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Graduate mentor: Prof. Michael Gagné
Professional appointments:
Biomedisyn
Novartis
Amazon Web Services
Emily Tarsis, Ph.D. Ph.D. 2011 – Duke University
Graduate mentor: Prof. Don Coltart
Professional appointments:
Nova Southeastern University
Connecticut College
Dexi Yang, Ph.D. Ph.D. 2008 – The Ohio State University
Graduate mentor: Prof. David J. Hart
Professional appointment:
Merck Research Laboratories
QuantX Biosciences