Development of New Medicinal Agents Using Natural Product Scaffolds
The primary research area of the Pongdee Research Group is the design and development of architecturally novel small molecule therapeutics based upon natural product scaffolds. With this in-mind, we are pursuing structure-activity-relationship (SAR) and glycodiversification studies of various natural products as a means to access potentially more potent analogues for biological evaluation.
Chemical Education
Ron is also invested in the development of classroom and laboratory materials that employ the POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) active-learning pedagogy. In POGIL, students work in small self-managed teams learning both discipline-specific content as well as invaluable process skills. Currently, Ron is working on activities for the 2-semester introductory organic chemistry sequence.