Roxana Ciochina, PhD
Course Information
At Pacific University, all faculty teach a variety of different courses. Typically, we do not use graduate teaching assistants, which means that your classes will be taught by professors and that you will have plenty of opportunities to get to know the faculty in your discipline.
Below I have listed some of the courses that I teach. We are always developing and trying out new classes, so the list may change now and then.
Chem 220 | General Chemistry I
Chem 300 | Fundamentals of Organic Chemistry
Chem 400 | Advanced Organic Chemistry
Education
PhD Chemistry, University of Kentucky, (2006)
MS Chemistry , Natural Products, "Gh. Asachi" Technical University, Department of Industrial Chemistry, Iasi, Romania, (1998)
B.S. BioChemical Engineering, "Gh, Asachi" Technical University, Department of Industrial Chemistry, Iasi, Romania, (1997)
Research Interests
Natural products synthesis
Structure-Activity Relationship (SAR) studies of antioxidant agents
Organic methodology
Current projects:
Research Project 1: Our group developed a series of curcumin derivatives and is currently looking into their antioxidant properties as well as antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and carcinogenic properties. Some curcumin derivatives showed a strong fluorescence and we have already started looking into their optical properties and their potential uses as fluorescent dyes in biomedical research.
Research Project 2: The objective of this project is to synthesize laurenditerpenol by using the Diels – Alder reaction in the key steps of the synthesis. Laurenditerpenol is a natural product that potentially inhibits HIF-1, a key factor in cancer progression. Students will have the chance to explore a wide variety of organic reactions, almost all studied in their sophomore courses, with a main focus on the Diels – Alder reaction. Chemical synthesis (the discipline associated with building molecular structures) is the common element that will underlie our research endeavors. Because synthesis is an integral part of the drug development process, this area of research is at the cutting edge of molecular based therapeutics. Students in our group will learn how to apply the tools of organic chemistry to important problems that span the traditional disciplines.
Research Project 3: This project is in collaboration with Dr. Daniela Andrei from Dominican University, River Forest, IL. The objective of this project is to develop a method for the synthesis of multisubstituted halogenated olefins via cross coupling of dihalolkenes with alkylzinc bromides (Negishi reaction). These olefins will be further used by Dr. Andrei in the synthesis of S-adenosylhomocysteine, an aminoacid derivative used in several metabolic pathways.
Recent Publications:
Roxana Ciochina and Robert B. Grossman, "The Polyprenylated Polycyclic Acylphloroglucinols", Chem. Rev. 2006, 106(9), 3963-3986.
Raghu Ram Chamala, Roxana Ciochina, Raphael A. Finkel, Robert B. Grossman, Saravana Kannan, and Prasanth Ramachandran. "EPOCH: An Organic Chemistry Homework Program that Offers Response-Specific Feedback." J. Chem. Ed. 2006, 83(1), 164-169.
Roxana Ciochina and Robert B. Grossman, "A New Synthetic Approach to the Polyprenylated Polycyclic Acylphloroglucinols." Org. Lett. 2003, 5(24), 4619-4622.
Al. Duca, Roxana Ciochina, Doina Bejan and Maria Gaburici, "The Voltammetric and Spectral Characterization of o-, m-, and p-Phenylenediamines" Analele St. Univ. "Al. Ioan Cuza", Iasi, s. Chim. VIII, 1, (2000).