Members
Principal Investigator
Dr. Alan Healy
Dr. Healy received his undergraduate degree in Medicinal Chemistry from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland followed by an MSc in Biomedical Science from the University of Edinburgh, UK. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 2014 from the University of St. Andrews, UK, where he carried out research in Professor Nick Westwood's group. Subsequently, he carried out postdoctoral research at Yale University in the laboratories of Professor Seth Herzon and Professor Jason Crawford where he studied the link between small molecule toxins produced by select strains of bacteria in the human gut and the development of colorectal cancer.
Email: alan.healy@nyu.edu
Postdoctoral Researchers
Education: BSc Bergische Universität Wuppertal (2013), MSc Bergische Universität Wuppertal (2015), PhD Bergische Universität Wuppertal (2019)
Internship: BSc intern at Bayer AG, MSc intern at BASF
poster presentation at 22nd Tetrahedron Symposium 2022
Dr. Torsten Cellnik
Dr. Torsten Cellnik was born in Remscheid, Germany, in 1991. He obtained his Bachelor degree in 2013 followed by his Master degree in 2015 from Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany. Afterwards he stayed at Bergische Universität Wuppertal and received his PhD degree under the supervision of Professor Stefan Kirsch (2019). In this time, he studied the selective defunctionalization of Ouabain, a cardiac glycoside, to obtain a variety of highly substituted steroids. The development of synthetic methods and their integration into automation are the areas of interest for him.
Group member since: 09/2019
Email: tc98@nyu.edu
Dr. Namitharan Kayambu
Dr. Namitharan was born in Tamil Nadu, India. He earned his Ph.D. degree in 2012 from Madurai Kamaraj University, India, where his research focused on heterogenous catalysis and the advancement of novel methodologies. He worked in the esteemed laboratories of renowned scholars, including the Prof. Robin Chi group at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, the Prof. David Nagib group at Ohio State University, USA, and the Prof. Han Zuilhof group at Wageningen University, Netherlands. These experiences enriched his expertise and broadened his perspective on diverse scientific approaches. Additionally, Dr. Namitharan served as an independent faculty member at SRM University and Amity University in India, further shaping the minds of aspiring researchers while continuing his own scholarly pursuits. His current research endeavors encompass a wide array of subjects, such as developing novel methodologies, exploring asymmetric synthesis, advancing drug discovery methods, synthesizing conjugated polymers, and heterogeneous catalysis.
Email: nk3882@nyu.edu
Education: BSc Madura College (2005).
MSc&PhD Maduraj Kamaraj University (2012). Postdoctoral Researcher at Nanyang Technological University (2012-2014), Ohio State University (2014-2015), Wageningen University (2022-2023).
Assistant Professor SRM and Amity University (2015-2022)
Dr. Liban Saney
Dr. Liban Saney was born and raised in London,
United Kingdom and is of Somali heritage. He received his Masters of Chemistry
(MChem) at the University of Hull (2013-2017) and a Doctorate (DPhil) in
Organic and Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Oxford under the
supervision of Prof. Mark G. Moloney (2017-2021). His DPhil research was
focused on finding novel methodologies towards the synthesis of tetramic acids
derived from amino esters and testing these compounds for antibacterial activity.
After completion of his DPhil studies, he became a postdoctoral research
scholar with Prof. Andrew G. Myers at Harvard University (2022-2023) to further
his research interests in antibacterial drug discovery. He has now joined Prof.
Alan Healy’s and Prof. Fabio Piano’s groups at New York University in Abu Dhabi
(NYUAD) (2023), where he will attempt to bridge together synthetic organic
chemistry, medicinal chemistry and chemical biology, where he will be targeting
the total synthesis of natural products – or analogues thereof – and testing
the bioactivity of these molecules against nematodes and other species.
Group member since: 09/2023
Email: lhs9835@nyu.edu
Dr. Vadim Filatov
Dr. Vadim Filatov was born in Kursk, Russia. In 2018, he received his specialist degree (equivalent to a Master's in the Russian academic degree system) from Lomonosov Moscow State University. From 2016 until the autumn of 2024, Dr Filatov was employed by the laboratory of biologically active organic compounds (BAOC) of the Lomonosov MSU chemistry department. In 2022, he was awarded his PhD under the guidance of Professor Elena K. Beloglazkina. At that time, his primary research fields were the design and synthesis of spirooxindole-based small-molecule inhibitors of MDM2 protein for targeted cancer therapy and the study of Staudinger ketene-imine cycloaddition reaction.
Group member since: 11/2024
Email: vef2017@nyu.edu
Education: Specialist Lomonosov MSU (2018), PhD Lomonosov MSU (2022)
Woonkee Jo
Woonkee Jo is a native South Korean who was born in Lebanon (1998) because his parents were missionaries in the Middle East. He received his B.S. in pure chemistry from the American University of Beirut (AUB) with high distinction in 2019 and has also minored in philosophy. He was trained for two semesters under the supervision of Prof. Bilal R. Kaafarani during his undergraduate years and has worked on the synthesis of isoindigo-based materials for electronic applications. Woonkee then applied for his PhD programme at NYUAD which gave him the opportunity to spend one year in New York to complete his coursework. As a first-year graduate student, he had rotated with Professor Dirk Trauner’s group where he focused on a total synthesis project with Dr. Andrej Shemet. As of 2020, he has permanently joined Prof. Alan Healy’s group and his research focuses on developing and optimising a systematic method for polyketide synthesis using novel auxiliaries.
Group member since: 01/2020
Email: wsj226@nyu.edu
Education: BSc American University of Beirut (2019), PhD NYU Abu Dhabi (2025)
Graduate students
Shaoting Peng
Shaoting Peng was born in Beijing, China. He received his B.S. in chemistry from NYU Shanghai in 2021, during which he was supervised by Professor William Glover on computational simulation of hydrated electrons. After graduate, he worked in Professor Lu Liu's lab in East China Normal University for one year and worked on synthesizing steroid molecules and diazo compounds. He then joined the Ph.D. program at NYUAD and rotated in Professor Kent Kirshenbaum's lab and facilitated the project on native chemical ligation of peptoid. Starting from July 2023, he joined Healy lab and focuses on developing new method of asymmetric conjugate reduction.
Group member since: 06/2023
Email: sp4767@nyu.edu
Education: BSc NYU Shanghai (2021)
Undergraduate students
Ikya Ekanayake
Ikya Ekanayake, an undergraduate senior at New York University Abu Dhabi, is majoring in Chemistry with a strong interest in medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry. Her current research focuses on the chemical modification of the natural product andrimid to enhance its activity against Gram-negative bacteria. Through this work, she explores structure–activity relationships and strategies for improving antibiotic efficacy. She is particularly interested in pursuing further studies in the pharmaceutical sciences and exploring applications of chemistry in the cosmetics industry.
Group member since: 09/2024