Assistant Professor, Chemistry Department

Professor Cook began his academic career at Reed College (Portland, OR) in 1995. While there, he quickly recognized the importance of organic chemistry in a wide range of disciplines – from cell biology to nuclear chemistry. After earning his B.A. in 1999, Professor Cook took a position at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) in San Diego, CA. There he worked to unravel various signal transduction pathways related to kinase and GTPase cell signaling. In 2001, he began his graduate studies in total synthesis at Columbia University (New York, NY) under the auspices of Professor Samuel J. Danishefsky. Upon the completion of his Ph.D. in 2006, he took a post-doctoral position in the laboratory of Professor Eric Jacobsen at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA). In 2008, Professor Cook accepted an offer to join the Chemistry Department at Indiana University.

Inspiration for the research in the Cook group derives from the complex challenges presented by natural products. Through the broad study of natural-product synthesis, the group seeks to uncover new strategies in synthesis, catalysis and molecular pharmacology. Molecules targeted for total synthesis are selected for both their elaborate architecture and biological activity. Furthermore, the group's methodology program aims to discover new or improved methods and catalysts for application toward the synthesis of interesting chemical entities.

Research

Research in the Cook group focuses on the creation of biologically relevant small molecules through the synthesis of natural and unnatural molecules with the potential to illuminate living systems. Paramount to our goal is the development of new strategies and catalysts for the efficient synthesis of small molecules, with an emphasis on the application of these methods to the total synthesis of complex natural products. Natural products have played a critical role in scientific discovery over the last several decades. Advancements in the areas of reaction development, mechanistic theory and spectroscopy are only matched by the contributions of natural product research to medicine, biology and pharmacology. It is because of these major contributions that total synthesis has been referred to as a “mature” discipline. Although the field may be more advanced than other fledgling areas of chemistry, countless exciting discoveries still remain, and researchers in the Cook group labor to bring them to light.

Selected Publications

Polara, A.; Cook, S. P.; Danishefsky, S. J. “Multiple chirality transfers in the enantioselective synthesis of 11-O-debenzoyltashironin. Chiroptical analysis of the key cascade,” Tetrahedron Lett. 2008, 49, 5906-5908.

Cook, S. P.; Polara, A.; Danishefsky, S. J. “The Total Synthesis of 11-O-Debenzoyltashironin,” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 16440-16441.

Cook, S. P.; Danishefsky, S. J. “An Interesting Issue of Diels-Alder Selectivity Discovered En Route to11-O-Debenzoyltashironin,” Org. Lett. 2006, 8, 5693-5695.

Cook, S. P.; Gaul, C.; Danishefsky, S. J. “En Route to the Total Synthesis of Tashironin: On the Exercise of Stereochemical Control by a Methyl Group in Mediating Remote Cyclization Reactions,” Tetrahedron Lett. 2005, 46, 843-847.

Awards

• Pfizer Student Fellowship 2004
• Celera Graduate Fellowship 2004
• Morgan Scholarship 2001

Highlights

Postdoctoral applications are now being accepted. Please send a brief statement of research interests, curriculum vitae and three letters of recommendation (including one from your graduate advisor) to Professor Cook via email or regular mail.