Alison Narayan

Often the pharmaceutical potential of natural product scaffolds is under explored due to the difficulty in accessing analogs to complex secondary metabolites using traditional synthetic methods. Recent advances in sequencing technology have facilitated the identification of secondary metabolite gene clusters from genomic and metagenomic samples, which has led to an explosion of newly identified and annotated secondary metabolite pathways. In the Narayan Lab, we will leverage the powerful reactivity and selectivity of enzymes from natural product pathways in concise approaches to natural products and their analogs. Projects will be initiated with the identification of an enzyme with synthetic potential unmatched by chemocatalytic methods and continue by demonstrating the substrate scope and potential applications of the biocatalyst including the synthesis of biologically active molecules. Synthetic efforts will feed biological studies on activity, which will inform the subsequent selection of synthetic targets.

The group will welcome synthetic chemists, chemical biologists and biochemists eager to engage in cutting edge biocatalysis research. Our labs will be housed in the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan. 

Awards

Life Sciences Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow (2012-2015)
Postdoctoral Translational Scholars Program Fellow, University of Michigan (2012)
Roche Symposium: Excellence in Chemistry graduate student fellow (2010)
Delegate, 59th Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates (2009)
Amgen Graduate Fellowship (2009-2010)
American Chemical Society Outstanding Senior Award, University of Michigan (2006)

Representative Publications

Dutta, S.; Whicher, J. R.; Hansen, D. A.; Hale, W. A.; Chemler, J. A.; Narayan, A. R. N.; Hakansson, K.; Sherman, D. H.; Smith, J. L.; Skiniotis, G. “Structure of a modular polyketide synthase” Nature 2014, 510, 512-517.

Whicher, J. R.; Dutta, S.; Hansen, D. A.; Hale, W. A.; Chemler, J. A.; Narayan, A. R. N.; Hakansson, K.; Sherman, D. H.; Smith, J. L.; Skiniotis, G. “Structural rearrangements of a PKS module during its catalytic cycle” Nature 2014, 510, 560-564.

Negretti, S.*; Narayan, A. R. H.*; Chiou, K. C.; Kells, P. M.; Stachowski, J. L.; Hansen, D. A.; Podust, L. M.; Montgomery, J.; Sherman, D. H. “Directing group-controlled regioselectivity in an enzymatic C-H bond oxygenation” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 4901-4904.
*Denotes equal contribution

Heller, S. T.; Kiho, T.; Narayan, A. R. H.; Sarpong, R. “Protic Solvent Mediated Cycloisomerization of Quinoline and Isoquinoline Propargylic Carbinols: Syntheses of (±)-3-Demethoxyerythratidinone and (±)-Cocculidine” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 11129-11133.

Hansen, D. H.; Rath, C. M.; Eisman, E. B.; Narayan, A. R. H.; Kittendorf, J. D.; Mortison, J. D.; Yoon, Y. J.; Sherman, D. H. “Biocatalytic Synthesis of Pikromycin, Methymycin, Neomethymycin, Novamethymycin, and Ketomethymycin” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 11232-11238.

Narayan, A. R. H.; Sherman, D. H. “Re-engineering nature’s catalysts” Science 2013, 339, 283-284.

Hardin Narayan, A. R.; Sarpong, R. "Indolizinones as Synthetic Scaffolds: Fundamental Reactivity and the Relay of Stereochemical Information" Org. Biomol. Chem. 2012, 10, 70-78.

Research Areas(s)

• Biocatalysis
  Bioorganic Chemistry
  Chemical Biology
  New Methods Development
  Organic Chemistry
  Sustainable Chemistry
  Complex Molecule Synthesis