About

Nicos Andreou Petasis

Harold and Lillian Moulton Chair in Chemistry and Professor of Chemistry

Contact Information
E-mail: petasis@usc.edu
Phone: (213) 740-6683
Office: LHI 219

LINKS
Faculty Profile on Departmental Website
 

Education
B.S. Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, 1978
Ph.D. Organic Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, 1983
 

Postdoctoral Training
Research Associate and Adjunct Lecturer, University of Pennsylvania, 1984-1987  
 

Description of Research

Summary Statement of Research Interests
Organic Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry • New organic reactions: New reactions of organotitanium, organoaluminum and organoboron compounds. New methods for asymmetric synthesis and catalysis. • New technologies: New processes for hydrocarbon and energy-related chemistry. New technologies for process chemistry. New advanced materials. • New strategies: New concepts for the synthesis of amines, amino acids, amino alcohols, amino sugars, peptidomimetics and heterocycles. New strategies for combinatorial chemistry, medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. • New bioactive molecules: New bioactive heterocycles. New polyunsaturated lipid mediators including lipoxins, resolvins, protectins. New metabolites of omega-3 fatty acids. • New therapies: Design, synthesis and study of new therapeutic and chemo-preventive agents. Development of new methods for the treatment of inflammation, periodontal disease, cystic fibrosis, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer.
 

Affiliations with Research Centers, Labs, and Other Institutions
Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute
USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center
 

Conferences and Other Presentations

Conference Presentations
"Synthesis of novel heterocycles from the one-step reaction of amines, carbonyls, and organoboron compounds", 13th International Conference on Boron Chemistry (IMEBORON XIII), Lecture/Seminar, , Platja d'Aro, Barcelona, Spain, Invited, 09/21/2008-  
"From New Reactions and New Molecules to New Medicines", 2nd Hellenic Symposium on Organic Synthesis: From Chemistry to Biology, Medicine and Materials Scien, Plenary Lecture, , University of Athens, Greece, Invited, 04/19/2007-  
"From Chemistry to Medicine: New Chemical Reactions and New Synthetic Molecules Leading to New Therapies for Inflammation and Cancer", International Symposium on "Chemistry, Biology & Medicine, Invited Lecture, , Paphos, Cyprus, Invited, 05/28/2006-  
 

Publications

Journal Article
Calandria, J. M., Marcheselli, V. L., Mukherjee, P. K., Uddin, J., Winkler, J. W., Petasis, N. A., Bazan, N. G. (2009). Selective Survival Rescue in 15-Lipoxygenase-1-deficient Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells by the Novel Docosahexaenoic Acid-derived Mediator, Neuroprotectin D1. The Journal of Biological Chemistry. Vol. 284 (26), pp. 17877-17882.
Carlo, T., Petasis, N. A., Levy, B. D. (2009). Activation of Polyisoprenyl Diphosphate Phosphatase 1 Remodels Cellular Presqualene Diphosphate†. Biochemistry. Vol. 48 (13), pp. 2997-3004.
Cho, H., Thomas, S., Golden, E. B., Gaffney, K. J., Hofman, F. M., Chen, T. C., Louie, S. G., Petasis, N. A., Schonthal, A. H. (2009). Enhanced killing of chemo-resistant breast cancer cells via controlled aggravation of ER stress. Cancer Letters. Vol. 282 (1), pp. 87-97.
Golden, E. B., Lam, P. Y., Kardosh, A., Gaffney, K. J., Cadenas, E., Louie, S. G., Petasis, N. A., Chen, T. C., Schonthal, A. H. (2009). Green tea polyphenols block the anticancer effects of bortezomib and other boronic acid-based proteasome inhibitors. Blood. Vol. 113 (23), pp. 5927-5937.
Petasis, N. A., Butkevich, A. N. (2009). Synthesis of 2H-chromenes and 1,2-dihydroquinolines from aryl aldehydes, amines, and alkenylboron compounds. Journal of Organometallic Chemistry. Vol. 694 (11), pp. 1747-1753.
Petasis, N. A., Keledjian, R., Sun, Y., Nagulapalli, K. C., Tjonahen, E., Yang, R., Serhan, C. N. (2008). Design and synthesis of benzo-lipoxin A4 analogs with enhanced stability and potent anti-inflammatory properties. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters. Vol. 18 (4), pp. 1382–1387.
Schonthal, A. H., Chen, T. C., Hofman, F. M., Louie, S. G., Petasis, N. A. (2008). Celecoxib analogs that lack COX-2 inhibitory function: preclinical development of novel anticancer drugs. Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs. Vol. 17 (2), pp. 197-208.
Chuang, H., Kardosh, A., Gaffney, K. J., Petasis, N. A., Schonthal, A. H. (2008). COX-2 inhibition is neither necessary nor sufficient for celecoxib to suppress tumor cell proliferation and focus formation in vitro. Molecular Cancer. Vol. 7 (1), pp. 38.
Kardosh, A., Golden, E. B., Pyrko, P., Uddin, J., Hofman, F. M., Chen, T. C., Louie, S. G., Petasis, N. A., Schonthal, A. H. (2008). Aggravated Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress as a Basis for Enhanced Glioblastoma Cell Killing by Bortezomib in Combination with Celecoxib or Its Non-Coxib Analogue, 2,5-Dimethyl-Celecoxib. Cancer Research. Vol. 68 (3), pp. 843-851.
Petasis, N. A. (2007). Expanding roles for organoboron compounds - Versatile and valuable molecules for synthetic, biological, and medicinal chemistry. Australian Journal of Chemistry. Vol. 60 (11), pp. 795-798.
Pyrko, P., Kardosh, A., Liu, Y. T., Soriano, N., Xiong, W. Y., Chow, R. H., Uddin, J., Petasis, N. A., Mircheff, A. K., Farley, R. A., Louie, S. G., Chen, T. C., Schothal, A. H. (2007). Calcium-activated endoplasmic reticulum stress as a major component of tumor cell death induced by 2,5-dimethyl-celecoxib, a non-coxib analogue of celecoxib. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. Vol. 6 (4), pp. 1262-1275.
Sun, Y. P., Oh, S. F., Uddin, J., Yang, R., Gotlinger, K., Campbell, E., Colgan, S. P., Petasis, N. A., Serhan, C. N. (2007). Resolvin D1 and its aspirin-triggered 17R epimer - Stereochemical assignments, anti-inflammatory properties, and enzymatic inactivation. Journal of Biological Chemistry. Vol. 282 (13), pp. 9323-9334.
Arita, M., Oh, S. F., Chonan, T., Hong, S., Elangovan, S., Sun, Y. P., Uddin, J., Petasis, N. A., Serhan, C. N. (2006). Metabolic inactivation of resolvin E1 and stabilization of its anti-inflammatory actions. Journal of Biological Chemistry. Vol. 281 (32), pp. 22847-22854.
Bonnans, C., Fukunaga, K., Keledjian, R., Petasis, N. A., Levy, B. D. (2006). Regulation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase by polyisoprenyl phosphates in neutrophil-mediated tissue injury. Journal of Experimental Medicine. Vol. 203 (4), pp. 857-863.
Pyrko, P., Soriano, N., Kardosh, A., Liu, Y. T., Uddin, J., Petasis, N. A., Hofman, F. M., Chen, C. S., Chen, T. C., Schonthal, A. H. (2006). Downregulation of survivin expression and concomitant induction of apoptosis by celecoxib and its non-cyclooxygenase-2-inhibitory analog, dimethyl-celecoxib (DMC), in tumor cells in vitro and in vivo. Molecular Cancer. Vol. 5 (19), pp. 1-16.
Serhan, C. N., Gotlinger, K., Hong, S., Lu, Y., Siegelman, J., Baer, T., Yang, R., Colgan, S. P., Petasis, N. A. (2006). Anti-inflammatory actions of neuroprotectin D1/protectin D1 and its natural stereoisomers: Assignments of dihydroxy-containing docosatrienes. Journal of Immunology. Vol. 176 (3), pp. 1848-1859.
Arita, M., Bianchini, F., Aliberti, J., Sher, A., Chiang, N., Hong, S., Yang, R., Petasis, N. A., Serhan, C. N. (2005). Stereochemical assignment, antiinflammatory properties, and receptor for the omega-3 lipid mediator resolvin E1. Journal of Experimental Medicine. Vol. 201 (5), pp. 713-722.
Karp, C. L., Flick, L. M., Yang, R., Uddin, J., Petasis, N. A. (2005). Cystic fibrosis and lipoxins. Prostaglandins Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids. Vol. 73 (3-4), pp. 263-270.
Levy, B. D., Hickey, L., Morris, A. J., Larvie, M., Keledjian, R., Petasis, N. A., Bannenberg, G., Serhan, C. N. (2005). Novel polyisoprenyl phosphates block phospholipase D and human neutrophil activation in vitro and murine peritoneal inflammation in vivo. British Journal of Pharmacology. Vol. 146 (3), pp. 344-351.
Petasis, N. A., Akritopoulou-Zanze, I., Fokin, V. V., Bernasconi, G., Keledjian, R., Yang, R., Uddin, J., Nagulapalli, K. C., Serhan, C. N. (2005). Design, synthesis and bioactions of novel stable mimetics of lipoxins and aspirin-triggered lipoxins. Prostaglandins Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids. Vol. 73 (3-4), pp. 301-321.
Karp, C. L., Flick, L. M., Park, K. W., Softic, S., Greer, T. M., Keledjian, R., Yang, R., Uddin, J., Guggino, W. B., Atabani, S. F., Belkaid, Y., Xu, Y., Whitsett, J. A., Accurso, F. J., Wills-Karp, M., Petasis, N. A. (2004). Defective lipoxin-mediated anti-inflammatory activity in the cystic fibrosis airway. Nature Immunology. Vol. 5 (4), pp. 388-392.
Prakash, G. K., Mandal, M., Schweizer, S., Petasis, N. A., Olah, G. A. (2002). Stereoselective synthesis of anti-alpha-(difluoromethyl)-beta-amino alcohols by boronic acid based three-component condensation. Stereoselective preparation of (2S,3R)-difluorothreonine. Journal of Organic Chemistry. Vol. 67 (11), pp. 3718-3723.
Petasis, N. A., Boral, S. (2001). One-step three-component reaction among organoboronic acids, amines and salicylaldehydes. Tetrahedron Letters. Vol. 42 (4), pp. 539-542.
Petasis, N. A., Patel, Z. D. (2000). Synthesis of piperazinones and benzopiperazinones from 1,2-diamines and organoboronic acids. Tetrahedron Letters. Vol. 41 (49), pp. 9607-9611.
Prakash, G. K., Mandal, M., Schweizer, S., Petasis, N. A., Olah, G. A. (2000). A facile stereocontrolled synthesis of anti-alpha-(trifluoromethyl)-beta-amino alcohols. Organic Letters. Vol. 2 (20), pp. 3173-3176.
You, Y. J., He, Y. K., Borrows, P. E., Forrest, S. R., Petasis, N. A., Thompson, M. E. (2000). Fluorophores related to the green fluorescent protein and their use in optoelectronic devices. Advanced Materials. Vol. 12 (22), pp. 1678-1679.
Petasis, N. A., Zavialov, I. A. (1998). Highly stereocontrolled one-step synthesis of anti-beta-amino alcohols from organoboronic acids, amines, and alpha-hydroxy aldehydes. Journal of the American Chemical Society. Vol. 120 (45), pp. 11798-11799.
Levy, B. D., Petasis, N. A., Serhan, C. N. (1997). Polyisoprenyl phosphates in intracellular signalling. Nature. Vol. 389 (6654), pp. 985-990.
Petasis, N. A., Goodman, A., Zavialov, I. A. (1997). A new synthesis of alpha-arylglycines from aryl boronic acids. Tetrahedron. Vol. 53 (48), pp. 16463-16470.
Petasis, N. A., Hu, Y. H. (1997). Allenation of carbonyl compounds with alkenyltitanocene derivatives. Journal of Organic Chemistry. Vol. 62 (4), pp. 782-783.
Petasis, N. A., Zavialov, I. A. (1997). A new and practical synthesis of alpha-amino acids from alkenyl boronic acids. Journal of the American Chemical Society. Vol. 119 (2), pp. 445-446.
 

Honors and Awards
Endowed Chair, Harold and Lillian Moulton Chair in Chemistry, 2001-  
Recipient of National or International Prize in Discipline, American Chemical Society Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, 2008-2009   
Novartis Chemistry Lectureship, 2007-2008   
USC Associates Award For Creativity In Research And Scholarship, 2007-2008   
Boron Americas Award for Distinguished Achievements in Boron Science, 2002-2003   
USC Academic Senate Executive Board, Secretary General, 1998-2000  
 

Service to the University

Administrative Appointments
Head, Organic/Materials Division, Department of Chemistry, 2005-  
 

Committees
Member, University Committee on Academic Program Review, 2007-2010  
Member, USC College, Natural Sciences and Mathematics Personnel Committee , 2005-2007  
Member, University Research Committee, 1998-2000  
Co-Chair, Provost’s Special Committee on Faculty Review, 1998-1999   
Member, Committee on General Education, USC College, 1997-1998   
 

Service to the Profession

Editorships and Editorial Boards
Member, Editorial Board, Research Letters in Organic Chemistry, 2007-  
 
 
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