<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Scesa Lab]]></title><description><![CDATA[Scesa Lab]]></description><link>https://www.scesalab.com/research-blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 10:40:23 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.scesalab.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Highlights from the 2026 Marine Natural Products GRC &#38; GRS]]></title><description><![CDATA[The 2026 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Marine Natural Products and the accompanying Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) brought together scientists working at the intersection of chemistry, biology, and biotechnology to share new ideas and discoveries. At this year’s meeting, R. Sanjeevan presented a poster titled “Biosynthesis of Soft Coral Terpenes and Engineering Yeast for Enhanced Production.”  The project focuses on understanding how soft corals produce complex terpenes and how those...]]></description><link>https://www.scesalab.com/post/conference-presentation</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69cbe2464c31bb6f64bcde00</guid><category><![CDATA[Events]]></category><category><![CDATA[New stories]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2026 16:34:01 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/5c648a_f82f070e20574a0397fd2005a2ee9426~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>paul scesa</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Special Issue: Chemical Ecology and Biosynthesis Study of Marine Invertebrates ]]></title><description><![CDATA[We’re excited to share that a special issue in Marine Drugs  is currently in the works, focu sing on the ecology and biosynthesis of marine invertebrate natural products. This issue aims to highlight new discoveries at the intersection of chemical ecology, biosynthesis, and marine natural products research, with an emphasis on how organisms produce and use these compounds in their environments. If you’re working in this area and are interested in contributing, we’d love to hear from you—feel...]]></description><link>https://www.scesalab.com/post/marine-drugs-special-issue</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69c33b11d67c72d7ecb9470b</guid><category><![CDATA[New stories]]></category><category><![CDATA[Events]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 25 Mar 2026 01:33:08 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/5c648a_93c1d3610cf74904af54254c263bb14f~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>paul scesa</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Paul's postdoctoral work on pseudopterosins was featured in an article by University of Utah Health!]]></title><description><![CDATA[https://utah-health.shorthandstories.com/ptf-unlocking-secrets-in-cells-to-advance-health/]]></description><link>https://www.scesalab.com/post/paul-s-postdoctoral-work-on-pseudopterosins-was-featured-in-an-article-by-university-of-utah-health</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69c33a798f0e652aaa301b0b</guid><pubDate>Wed, 25 Mar 2026 01:29:32 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>paul scesa</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Dipa Aryal]]></title><description><![CDATA[Dipa is our newest student in the lab!]]></description><link>https://www.scesalab.com/post/dipa-aryal</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6982671fb3cad227932e29d6</guid><category><![CDATA[Students]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2026 21:22:47 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>paul scesa</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Role of Macrocyclic Conformational Steering in a Kinetic Route toward Bielschowskysin]]></title><description><![CDATA[Macrocyclic furanobutenolide-derived cembranoids (FBCs) are the biosynthetic precursors to a wide variety of highly congested and oxygenated polycyclic (nor)diterpenes (e.g. plumarellide, verrillin, and bielschowskysin). These architecturally complex metabolites are thought to originate from site-selective oxidation of the macrocycle backbone and a series of intricate transannular reactions. Yet the development of a common biomimetic route has been hampered by a lack of synthetic methods for...]]></description><link>https://www.scesalab.com/post/role-of-macrocyclic-conformational-steering-in-a-kinetic-route-toward-bielschowskysin</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69545bc2d01834484ce968e7</guid><category><![CDATA[publications]]></category><category><![CDATA[New stories]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 30 Dec 2025 23:10:48 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/5c648a_346818f14cd7487faabb836e76f9f4b1~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_479,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>paul scesa</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Kinetic Dearomatization Strategy for an Expedient Biomimetic Route to the Bielschowskysin Skeleton]]></title><description><![CDATA[Bielschowskysin ( 1 ), the flagship of the furanocembranoid diterpene family, has attracted attention from chemists owing to its intriguing and daunting polycyclic architecture and medicinal potential against lung cancer. The high level of functionalization of  1  poses a considerable challenge to synthesis. Herein, a stereoselective furan dearomatization strategy of furanocembranoids was achieved via the intermediacy of chlorohydrins. The stereochemical course of the kinetic dearomatization...]]></description><link>https://www.scesalab.com/post/a-kinetic-dearomatization-strategy-for-an-expedient-biomimetic-route-to-the-bielschowskysin-skeleton</link><guid isPermaLink="false">695459ff312f3eab68dce952</guid><category><![CDATA[publications]]></category><category><![CDATA[New stories]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 30 Dec 2025 23:03:56 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/5c648a_91cbea616ac54884b9e750501c9acdf0~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_483,h_188,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>paul scesa</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Cyclized 9,11-secosterol enol-ethers from Pseudopterogorgia americana]]></title><description><![CDATA[Chemical investigation of the MeOH extract from the gorgonian Pseudopterogorgia americana  afforded two rare sterols, ameristerenol A ( 1 ) and B ( 2 ), both 9,11-secosterols possesses a seven-membered cyclic enol-ether in ring C, and ameristerol A ( 3 ) is the first example of a naturally occurring 9,11-secosterol containing a gorgosterol side chain with a C-24(28) double bond. Ameristerenol A ( 1 ) was converted to the sterol derivatives 4 – 6  to provide additional chemical diversity and...]]></description><link>https://www.scesalab.com/post/cyclized-9-11-secosterol-enol-ethers-from-pseudopterogorgia-americana</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69545859299c372795fa7881</guid><category><![CDATA[publications]]></category><category><![CDATA[New stories]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 30 Dec 2025 22:59:44 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/5c648a_2a5ecba93d6046d3a355f35deafc9386~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_603,h_370,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>paul scesa</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Paul D. Scesa]]></title><description><![CDATA[Paul joined the faculty in the Department of Chemistry at the University of South Florida in 2024. Paul is a Florida Native, completing his Associates of Arts at Broward College (formerly Broward Community College), and Bachelors Degree at Florida Atlantic University. He continued at Florida Atlantic University for his PhD, studying the isolation and biomimetic synthesis of coral terpenes with Profs Lyndon West and Stephane Roche. After this, Paul traveled far away to the land of Utah to...]]></description><link>https://www.scesalab.com/post/paul-d-sceza</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69544b16312f3eab68dccbc0</guid><pubDate>Tue, 30 Dec 2025 21:58:53 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>paul scesa</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Sanjeevan Rajendran]]></title><description><![CDATA[I am a postdoctoral research scholar in the Department of Chemistry at the University of South Florida (USF). My current research focuses on engineering yeast for enhanced production of coral terpenes and transient expression of coral biosynthetic pathways in plant. I earned my Ph.D. in Natural Products Chemistry from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 2019. My doctoral research centered on plant- and fungi-derived secondary metabolites, including cyclic peptides, their biological...]]></description><link>https://www.scesalab.com/post/sanjeevan-rajendran</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69544afd312f3eab68dccb8d</guid><pubDate>Tue, 30 Dec 2025 21:58:27 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/5c648a_19a7e58a13534517876815da0024eaa1~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>paul scesa</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Jonathon Simpson]]></title><description><![CDATA[Johnny is originally from Indiana, where he grew up surrounded by corn. When Johnny was a kid, he dreamed of moving to Florida to study sharks. Then one day, Johnny realized he loved corals and the terpenes they produce. He is currently pursuing studies of coral terpene biosynthesis. Outside of science, Johnny enjoys playing the violin and modelling.]]></description><link>https://www.scesalab.com/post/jonathon-simpson</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69543ab4299c372795fa390f</guid><category><![CDATA[Students]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 30 Dec 2025 20:48:58 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>paul scesa</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Isabel Carley]]></title><description><![CDATA[I joined the lab in October of 2024 and works in drug discovery and medicinal chemistry. My experiments focus on the synthetic functionalization of diterpenoids to create a library of semi-synthetic analogs that are then screened for biological activity. Promising compounds undergo chemoproteomic experiments to shed light on the mechanism of action to pursue more target-based drug discovery. As an undergraduate I worked at Moffitt Cancer Center on the design and synthesis of dual inhibitors...]]></description><link>https://www.scesalab.com/post/isabelle-carey</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69543a904158de223fa30008</guid><category><![CDATA[Students]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 30 Dec 2025 20:48:23 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>paul scesa</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Nicole Kanya]]></title><description><![CDATA[Originally from New Jersey, Nicole relocated to Florida in 2018 to pursue her undergraduate studies at the University of Tampa, where she earned Bachelor of Science degrees in Biology and Environmental Science, with minors in Chemistry and Applied Dance. Prior to beginning her graduate studies at the University of South Florida, she worked for two years as an analytical chemist in a NELAC-certified laboratory, conducting metals and microbiological analyses of soil, drinking water, and...]]></description><link>https://www.scesalab.com/post/nicole-kanya</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69543a6d815d1c9fc763f688</guid><category><![CDATA[Students]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 30 Dec 2025 20:47:47 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/5c648a_bf8bdb3b02624226aa091fd050f55450~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_713,h_846,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>paul scesa</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Sian Marin]]></title><description><![CDATA[Sian Marin is a second-year PhD student from Belize whose research focuses on marine natural products with an emphasis on organic synthesis. His work centers on elucidating the mechanisms of terpene cyclases and mimicking selective oxidation processes observed in natural products, with the goal of accessing new and potentially more bioactive molecules. Prior to beginning his doctoral studies, he conducted research in Dr. Leahy’s laboratory, where he focused on the synthesis of activity-based...]]></description><link>https://www.scesalab.com/post/sian-marin</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69543a4dcd7ae146be27cd78</guid><category><![CDATA[Students]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 30 Dec 2025 20:47:17 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/5c648a_6f6931ecf36a4b978e4a9d931b322ed0~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>paul scesa</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Erik Jakubec]]></title><description><![CDATA[Erik is a second-year doctoral student whose research focuses on soft coral terpene biosynthesis and genome-encoded cryptic natural products. His work is grounded in an interdisciplinary approach to traditional natural products discovery, integrating spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques with bioinformatics, plasmid engineering for heterologous expression, enzymatic studies, and product diversification. During his undergraduate training at the University of South Florida, he conducted...]]></description><link>https://www.scesalab.com/post/erik-jakubek</link><guid isPermaLink="false">695437c63005d37b905e06b3</guid><category><![CDATA[Students]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 30 Dec 2025 20:37:30 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/5c648a_4a98fcec08fa447795985b7ff7636869~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>paul scesa</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>