Congratulations to Whitney Lab scientists, Dr. Jim Strother (Assistant Professor of Biology) and Sandra Loesgen (Associate Professor of Chemistry) for winning the inaugural UF Chemistry Gator Angel Wing Award.
The team have discovered a new fungal derived alkaloid named atheliapyrrolidine that acts as an agonist for the human serotonin receptor (5-HT2A) with nanomolar activity (US Patent App. 63460514). This agonist has potential for the treatment of multiple psychotic disorders, including chronic pain, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, major depressive disorder, Autism, and PTSD. James and Sandra plan to test its toxicity and early pharmacokinetics and dynamics in vitro, and the funds will enable ADME and PK/PD studies in vivo in rodents. Additionally, in early discovery stages, they have identified synthetic benzothiazine scaffolds that exhibit potent analgesic activity in zebrafish.
Gator Angel Wing Awards are possible through the generous support of Dr. Nicholas Conti (Ph.D. in Chemistry with Bill Jones, UF, 1987) and Amy Fox Conti to recognize, promote, and incentivize faculty who are entrepreneurially minded, and support their efforts to bring innovative research ideas from the laboratory to the marketplace.
This award will fund research to enable an angel round of financing of a start-up company. Dr. Loesgen and Dr. Strother have proposed to develop their analgesic leads into preclinical drug candidates (Bunnell et al 10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115526).