Group News – O'Reilly Lab

As per usual, the O’Reilly Lab was well represented at the Villanova Undergraduate Research Symposium with poster presentations by Harrison Bernhard, Kelsey Howey, and Aidan Tiffany. Great job everyone!!!

Daniel presented his work toward stereoselectively synthesizing C2-substituted azetidines in a new format… a “Three-Minute-Thesis.” He did an awesome job comparing molecular architectures to tools that people would use in their everyday life, and relating those tools to chirality. Amazing work, Daniel!

In Fall of 2023, Charlie went to Rice University to present his work at the Gulf Coast Undergraduate Research Symposium. He presented in the Chemical Biology section, and was one of two students awarded for the best presentation in the section… so, a tie. First or second, we are super proud of you, Charlie!

O’Reilly Lab master’s students Daniel and Saga presented their work at the American Chemical Society Young Chemists Committee (ACS-YCC) Temple University Symposium on August 23rd, 2023. They did great, and some action shots are below!

Vincent defended his Master’s thesis on June 30, and did an AMAZING JOB! Just some thesis edits to go, and he’ll be adding M.S. to his credentials. Vincent decided he loved chemistry and just wanted to keep doing more, so he is starting his PhD studies at the University of Pennsylvania in August. Congratulations, Vincent! Here are some pictures of the group from his defense day…

Spring 2023: VERY IMPORTANT PAPER ALERT! Congrats to Chris Russo and Kelsey Howey for their efforts on our paper below! Check it out in ChemMedChem, published by the European Chemical Society.

Spring 2023: Charlie, Daniel, and Dr. O went to Indianapolis to present at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society. Outstanding!

Winter 2022-2023: Vincent, Charlie, Jieyu, and Dr. O were published in Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry. The paper is titled, “Diastereoselective Synthesis of Cyclic Tetrapeptide Pseudoxylallemycin A Illuminates the Impact of Base During Macrolactamization.” Vincent will present a lot of the work at his Master’s Thesis Defense in the near future. Congrats everyone!

Fall 2022: A bunch of O’Reilly research students had their work published in ACS Omega, with co-first authors Zach Boyer and Hannah Kessler. The paper is titled, “Synthesis and Characterization of Functionalized Amino Dihydropyrimidines Toward the Analysis of their Antibacterial Structure-Activity Relationships and Mechanism of Action,” and it involved the work of 6 undergraduates. Very exciting times, indeed.

Summer 2022: Hannah Kessler, Chris Russo, Vincent Fumo, and O’Reilly had a publication accepted to The Journal of Chemical Education titled, “What’s in a Tablet? Extraction and Spectroscopic Identification of Pharmaceutical Unknowns.” It’s a great way to get our students excited about NMR spectroscopic techniques while learning a bit more about pharmaceuticals. Yes!

Summer 2022: O’Reilly organized and presided over a session at the Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, which took place at The College of New Jersey. The session was titled, “The Next-Generation of Scientists in Training: Accounts of Organic Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, and Chemical Biology Research Success Involving Non-Doctoral Students,” which was far too long a title in retrospect. However, outstanding teacher-scholars from throughout the region came together to share their research and their philosophy of advising undergraduate, and it was quite enlightening! O’Reilly also presented in the session.
Summer 2022: Chris Russo presented a poster at the Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, and it was titled, “Development of a General, Efficient, and Chromatography-Free Synthesis of Phenylalanine-Arginine beta-Naphthylamide Toward Evaluation of its Efflux Pump Inhibition Structure Activity Relationships.” Great work, Chris!

Spring 2022: Hannah Brosman, Zach Boyer, and Vincent Fumo presented their research at the national American Chemical Society meeting in San Diego. It was great having the opportunity to share our work!

Fall 2021: Zach Boyer presented his summer research during an outreach event put on by the Merck West Point team. His short presentation was titled, “Optimization of the Aza-Biginelli Reaction for Effective Anti-Microbial Analog Synthesis and Advances in NMR Characterization of Reaction Products.” Way to go, Zach!

Fall 2021: O’Reilly had a publication accepted to Journal of Chemical Education titled, “Discovery-Based Bromination of Alcohols: An Organic Chemistry Experiment Supporting Spectroscopic Analysis and Mechanistic Reasoning.” O’Reilly looks forward to continuing to use this outstanding experiment to train our excellent students. Let’s go!

Summer 2021: Hannah Kessler presented a poster at the national American Chemical Society conference in Atlanta titled, “Synthesis and biological evaluation of functionalized dihydropyrimidines as allosteric dihydrofolate reductase inhibitors with antibacterial activity.” Congrats, Hannah!

Spring 2021: Zach Boyer received a Villanova Undergraduate Research Fellowship (VURF) and Hannah Brosman and Constance Viollet were accepted into the Summer Undergraduate Research (SUGR) program. All of them will do 10 weeks of summer research in the O’Reilly Lab. Can’t wait to work with you all!

Spring 2021: Villanova’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences recently wrote a short press release regarding the funding of Matt’s NIH grant titled “Development of allosteric dihydrofolate inhibitors: exploration of a novel inhibitory mechanism for a validated antibiotic target.” Read it here!

Spring 2021: Hannah Kessler was awarded a Villanova Summer Graduate Research Fellowship! Congrats, Hannah!!!

Spring 2021: Vincent Fumo joined the O’Reilly Lab for his M.S. We’re excited to work with you, Vince!

Winter 2020: Jieyu Zhang was recently accepted to medical school. She will be attending Liberty University in Lynchberg, VA. We’ll miss having you in the lab, but a hearty congratulations to you, Jieyu!

Fall 2020: Hannah Kessler and Jieyu Zhang joined the O’Reilly Lab where they’ll perform their Master’s studies. Welcome!