Synthesis of Antileishmanial and antiChagas agents for drug prototypal development

Abstract

The post-doctoral workplan aims at the development of the syntheses of naturally-derived and -modified organic compounds, based in scaffolds which have been recently discovered, presenting promising antileishmanial and antitrypanosomal activities. The synthesis of such anti-parasitic compounds aims to obtain actives and new derivatives to be further evaluated against Leishmania and T. cruzi parasites, both in vitro and in vivo. The applicant will be responsible to develop and to improve synthetic methods aiming to obtain optimized compounds as anti-parasitic agents. The applicant will also interact with medicinal chemists aiming to optimize structures, investigate pharmacophore(s) and establish structure X bioactivity relationships. Moreover, the applicant will participate in a multi-disciplinary and investigative program with international researchers at both USA and UK, in order to integrate his/her capabilities and knowledge on organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry.