Faculty

Bio

Teaching Interests

Dr. Sanchez teaches organic chemistry, including topics of medicinal, polymers, and organometallic chemistry.

Research Interests

Research in Dr. Sanchez’s group is dedicated to synthetic organic chemistry with a focus on the preparation of biologically active compounds.

Complex molecules, resembling those found in nature, essentially play a minor role in the search for bioactive substances even in present-day times. Elaborated structures can be expensive and difficult to assemble; we have taken the challenge of combining tactics for the construction of molecular architectures to achieve complexity from simple and inexpensive starting materials.

The group aims at finding means to corroborate complex molecules’ potential, to incorporate them in computer-aided screenings, and to pursue them synthetically. It is evident that, besides natural products, bulky natural-like and even unnatural complex molecules represent an important missing piece in the search for compounds with biological activities.

Influenced by earlier work in collaboration with Merck and the High-Throughput Screening Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Sanchez intends to continue both collaborating with other institutions and exploiting modern discovery approaches—like high-throughput experimentation and statistical experimental design—for the development of new synthetic methods. In particular, metal-catalyzed transformations represent a rich area of investigation with numerous applications yet to be discovered.

Dr. Sanchez’s goals as a research mentor are to engage students in a discovery-driven exploration, to encourage them to find inspiration in the natural world, and to nurture their creativity and intuition for design at the molecular level.

Education

• Ph.D. Organic Chemistry (2010), Michigan State University
• Licentiate in Chemistry (2005), Pontifical Catholic University of Peru
• B.S. Chemistry (2003), Pontifical Catholic University of Peru

Professional Experience

• Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biochemistry, Chemistry & Physics at Niagara University, Aug 2013-present
• Postdoctoral Research Associate, Dept. of Chemistry at University of Pennsylvania, May 2011-Jul 2013
• Postdoctoral Research Associate, Dept. of Process Research at Merck Research Labs and Dept. of Chemistry at Michigan State University, Jan-Apr 2011

Publications

Since joining NU

7. Martinez-Solorio, D.; Melillo, B.; Sanchez, L.; Liang, Y.; Lam, E.; Houk, K. N.; Smith, A. B. III “Design, Synthesis, and Validation of an Effective, Reusable Silicon-Based Transfer Agent for Room-Temperature Pd-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions of Aryl and Heteroaryl Chlorides with Readily Available Aryl Lithium Reagents” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138, 1836–1839.

6. Kallepalli, V.; Shi, F.; Sanchez, L.; Chotana, G. A.; Miller, S. L.; Maleczka, R. E., Jr.; Smith, M. R., III “Harnessing C–H Borylation/Deborylation for Selective Deuteration, Synthesis of Boronate Esters, and Late-Stage Functionalization” J. Org. Chem., 2015, 80, 8341–8353.

Prior to joining NU

5. Sanchez, L.; Smith, A. B., III “Long-Range Anion Relay Chemistry (LR-ARC): a Validated ARC Tactic” Org. Lett. 2012, 14, 6314–6317.

4. Culyba, M.; Hwang, Y.; Attar, S.; Madrid, P. B.; Bupp, J.; Huryn, D.; Sanchez, L.; Grobler, J.; Miller, M. D.; Bushman, F. D. “Bulged DNA substrates for identifying poxvirus resolvase inhibitors” Nucl. Acids Res. 2012, 40, e124.

3. Kallepalli, V. A.; Sanchez, L.; Li, H.; Gesmundo, N.; Turton, C.; Maleczka, R. E., Jr.; Smith, M. R., III “Divergent Synthesis of 2,3,5-Substituted Thiophenes by C–H Activation / Borylation / Suzuki Coupling” Heterocycles 2010, 80, 1429–1448.

2. Norberg, A. M.; Sanchez, L.; Maleczka, R. E., Jr. “Aryl-aryl cross-couplings that avoid the preparation of haloaromatics” Curr. Opin. Drug Discovery Dev. 2008, 11, 853–869.

1. Galarreta, B. C.; Sifuentes, R.; Carrillo, A. K.; Sanchez, L.; Amado, M. d. R. I.; Maruenda, H. “The use of natural product scaffolds as leads in the search for trypanothione reductase inhibitors” Bioorg. Med. Chem. 2008, 16, 6689–6695.