Current Duke Appointments & Affiliations
Professor Emeritus in Surgery
·
2024 - Present
Surgery, Surgical Sciences,
Surgery
Recent Scholarly Works
Discovery of 4-Quinazolinone-Containing Phenylalanine Derivatives as Potent, Resistant-Tolerant HIV Capsid Inhibitors.
Journal article MedComm (2020) · May 2026 The HIV-1 capsid (CA) is a validated antiviral target that plays critical roles in both the early and late stages of the viral life cycle. Using structure-based strategy, we designed and synthesized a series of phenylalanine derivatives containing a 4-quin ... Full text Link to item CiteDiscovery of novel diarylpyrimidine derivatives as HIV-1 non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors: Design, synthesis and biological activity evaluation.
Journal article Bioorg Chem · March 2026 Our previous efforts have led to the development of potent NNRTI K-5a2, but it suffered from poor metabolic stability and aqueous solubility. Another work resulted in compounds XJ2-56 and XJ2-90 with reduced activity against the Y188L mutant strain. In thi ... Full text Link to item CiteHexakisphosphate (IP6) potentiates HIV-1 maturation inhibitor binding at the CA-SP1 junction: insights from molecular modeling and biophysical assays.
Journal article Int J Biol Macromol · November 2025 Bevirimat (BVM) and related compounds act as HIV maturation inhibitors (MIs), impeding protease-mediated cleavage of the Gag polyprotein by binding to and stabilizing the capsid (CA) and spacer peptide 1 (SP1) domains (CA-SP1). The CA-SP1 six-helix bundle ... Full text Link to item CiteRecent Grants
New Non-Nuceleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors for Drug Resistant HIV Strains
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2021 - 2024Small Molecule HIV-1 Entry Inhibitor with Novel Mechanisms of Action
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2018 - 2021Aloperine derivatives as novel anti-influenza agents
ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2020 - 2021View All Grants
Education
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill ·
1991
Ph.D.