Robert C. Reynolds, Ph.D.

Biography

Dr. Robert C. Reynolds holds a B.S. degree in Chemistry from The University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA and a Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry from Duke University, Durham, NC. Prior to joining Southern Research in 1987, Dr. Reynolds was briefly a Postdoctoral Fellow at Duke University and the National Institute of Environmental Health Science in Research Triangle, NC. At Duke and NIEHS, he carried out the preparation of novel deuterated and fluorinated biological probes for in vivo NMR studies, prepared boronated biological molecules for boron neutron capture therapy, and synthesized a variety of naphthalene sulfonamides and phenothiazines as calmodulin antagonists.

Dr. Reynolds joined Southern Research in 1987 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the area of medicinal organic chemistry and drug design under Drs. John Montgomery and Jack Secrist. While at Southern Research, Dr. Reynolds has worked in a variety of areas including drug design against infectious diseases, cancer, and parasites. Scientific projects include novel antisense oligonucleotides for the treatment of cancer and viral infections, improved bubble bath formulations, new dihydrofolate reductase inhibitors to treat bacterial diseases and cancer, and the design and preparation of novel inhibitors of the bacterial tubulin homolog FtsZ. He has over twenty years experience in organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry including preparation of heterocycles, carbohydrates, nucleosides and oligonucleotide analogs.

Dr. Reynolds has worked specifically in the area of anti-mycobacterial drug design for over fifteen years. As the Director of Drug Discovery Technology, Dr. Reynolds is also involved in strategic planning for the Medicinal Chemistry Department, and is fundamentally involved in implementing modern, high-throughput compound preparation and screening technologies at the Southern Research.