Assistant Professor (Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Office: 181 Clippinger Laboratories
Telephone: 740-593-9992
Fax: 740-593-0148
Email:masson@ohio.edu

Research in the Masson group is at the crossroads of physical organic,bioorganic and medicinal chemistry. We are especially interested in host-guest supramolecular chemistry and in the mechanisms involved in non-covalent interactions. These interactions are tremendously important factors affecting the fascinating shape of large molecular assemblies such as proteins and DNA. Moreover, a myriad of non-covalent interactions between proteins play crucial roles in cellular pathways,such as growth and apoptosis regulation. Drug design also relies on such interactions to disrupt protein/protein or protein/DNA assemblies,in order to inhibit a specific cellular pathway.

Current projects include:
•    The construction of stimulus-sensitive nanostructures and molecular machines.
•   The design, synthesis and evaluation of new rotaxanes and otherinterlocked structures, and their applications as molecular machines.
•   The disruption of protein/protein interactions with new potentanti-cancer agents generated by dynamic combinatorial chemistry.
•   The synthesis and evaluation of planar substrates designed to bind tothe minor groove of DNA. Applications will be oriented towards malariatreatment.
•    The elucidation and applications of the mysteriousanion-pi interaction phenomenon. While such interactions have beenshown to be highly favorable in silico, their existence in solution isyet to be demonstrated.
•    The regioselective functionalization ofaromatic and heteroaromatic coumponds using “green polar organometallicchemistry” on solid phase

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