IU alumnus joins chemistry faculty

Students in the chemistry department have welcomed Michael VanNieuwenhze this semester as a new associate professor and former Hellman Foundation Fellow. \n“IU has good laboratories and research resources, and I am a Midwestern native,” VanNieuwenhze said.\nVanNieuwenhze earned his doctoral degree from IU in 1992. He has worked as a research scientist at Eli Lilly and Company and as a faculty member at the University of California-San Diego. Now back at IU, VanNieuwenhze is teaching and studying the biological and medicinal problems with organic products.\nVanNieuwenhze’s research involves two main areas of interest. His primary research involves identifying new antibacterial agents that prevent the life of bacterial walls by inhibiting their biosynthesis, or chemical production. His secondary interest is in cancer chemotherapy.\n“Antibiotic resistance has become a significant public health concern,” VanNieuwenhze and co-authors Aikomari Guzman-Martinez and Ryan Lamer wrote in the April edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. “Antibiotics that belong to new structural classes and manifest their biological activity via (new) mechanisms are urgently needed.” \nVanNieuwenhze said research like his was important in the prevention of the latest event in eastern Kentucky’s Pike County School District. One confirmed case of antibiotic-resistant staph infection caused the district to plan to shut down all 23 of its schools yesterday to disinfect the facilities, according to a Saturday Associated Press report.\n“Natural products offer the opportunity to advance the art of organic synthesis, enhance our knowledge of chemical reactivity, while, at the same time, positioning the synthetic chemist to have a significant impact in emerging fields of biology and medicine,” VanNieuwenhze said.\nZhiyu Li, a doctoral student studying chemistry, said natural products are very important in biological and medical research since they could offer various agents for medical products.\n“We strive to develop novel synthetic methodology and to provide a challenging and stimulating research environment.” VanNieuwenhze said.