Paul D. Scesa

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 learn biosynthesis with the Prof Eric Schmidt. This work led to the discovery of terpene biosynthetic gene clusters in soft corals. Paul received an NIH Pathway to Independence Career Award K99/R00 to continue this work. Currently his lab focuses broadly on utilizing biosynthetic knowledge to discover and produce natural products. We are especially interest in terpenes, soft coral and their evolution/ecology and engineering ways to scale natural product production.