NIH awards chemistry professor John Gupton $348,572 grant to continue cancer research

The National Institutes of Health – National Cancer Institute has awarded John Gupton, professor of chemistry at the University of Richmond, a three-year, $348,572 grant for continuation of cancer-related research on pyrrole-containing substances.

The grant will support his project titled “The Synthesis and Bioassay of Novel Pyrroles.” Working with Gupton will be a postdoctoral research associate and several Richmond undergraduate students.

The project continues Gupton’s previous NIH-funded research that he believes could lead to “a novel and viable clinical candidate for cancer chemotherapy.”  Gupton and his team will study the synthesis of pyrrole-containing marine natural products and derivatives, which have previously “demonstrated promise as anti-tumor agents, multidrug resistant reversal agents, vascular disrupting agents and inhibitors of HIV integrase.”

Gupton is the Floyd D. and Elisabeth S. Gottwald Professor of Chemistry and has taught at Richmond since 1999. He has published numerous articles in scientific journals and won many awards for teaching and research excellence.

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