Vol. 19, No. 14

Dec. 9, 1999

GlaxoWellcome award
recognizes research excellence

Andrew P. Evans, chemistry and biochemistry, was among three chemists nationwide to receive a 1999 GlaxoWellcome Chemistry Scholars Award. Sponsored by the chemistry division of the Glaxo Wellcome company of Research Triangle Park, N.C., the award provides a two-year, unrestricted grant for exceptional young faculty in the fields of organic, bioorganic, medicinal or structural chemistry. Evans will receive $40,000 in research support resulting from the award. The GlaxoWellcome award marks the fourth major honor for Evans in the past few years: He was named one of only 20 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholars for 1998. The same year, he also received an award for excellence in research from Zeneca Pharmaceuticals and became an Eli Lilly Young Faculty Grantee. In addition, Evans was named an Outstanding Young Scholar by the Francis Alison Society at UD in 1997. His research focuses on building biologically important molecules by developing and using a series of new, organometallic cross-coupling reactions. Specifically, the group has been working on the potent antiviral, mycalamide A; an antitumor agent, mucocin; an anti-HIV agent, Batzellidine A; and the antifungal agents, gamberic acids A-D. "These new tools allow the construction of the key pharmacophore through a convergent cross-coupling reaction," he explained. "Organic chemists are unique in their ability to construct such structures, and with increasing demand from the chemical industry for more expeditious routes and biologically relevant templates for combinatorial approaches, we believe these new tools will prove invaluable to synthetic chemists throughout the world." Though the action of these agents is not always well understood, "We expect that our studies of the structure-activity relationships of these molecules will help us determine the key topological features responsible for the biological activity." Evans said. "That should give us insights into the mechanism of action." Such knowledge may lead to simplified structures featuring the key biologically active component, while also providing simplified structures for biological studies, he added. Evans received his Ph.D. in 1991 from Cambridge University, after earning his undergraduate degree from Newcastle Polytechnic. He previously served as a NATO postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Texas in Austin. -Ginger Pinholster