DAVID BOLSTAD
Assistant Professor

Email:

Phone: (406) 243-

David Bolstad will be joining the Chemistry Department of UM in the fall of 2008. David obtained a BS in Chemistry and a BA in Biology from Central Washington University in 2001. David's graduate studies were carried out here at UM working in the laboratory of John Gerdes where he studied the syntheses of novel agents for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of CNS transporters. He received his Ph.D in Chemistry from the University of Montana in 2006. David's postdoctoral work was accomplished in the labs of Dennis Wright and Amy Anderson at the University of Connecticut and included natural product synthesis, synthetic methodology, and the synthesis of novel DHFR inhibitors for parasitic organisms.

 

 

Course Links

 

Links of Interest

 

Research Interests

 

The research efforts in our laboratory will focus on the design and synthesis of biologically active natural product and natural product like compounds.  The projects encompass the disciplines of synthetic organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, natural products chemistry and total synthesis. Some of the more complex synthetic targets will provide us the opportunity to solve challenging synthetic problems and to develop new methods and strategies to assist in target construction.  Medicinal chemistry studies of these natural product compounds will help us to better define the structural requirements for biological activity and the pathways and mechanisms by which they exert there biological outcomes.

The specific investigations in my laboratory will initially be focused in two main areas:

The first will be an investigation of the novel non-nitrogenous natural products Salvinorin A and Erinacine E that demonstrates novel activity at central nervous system (CNS) opioid receptors.

The second will focus on novel, anti-parasitic natural product compounds that have documented activity against parasitic organisms responsible for widespread tropical diseases including Leishmaniasis and Chagus disease.

Universal themes to both projects will include the identification of key pharmacophoric elements of natural product leads through structure activity relationship studies of structurally simplified analogs.  Simplified analogs that demonstrate biological activity will then be used as intermediates for the synthesis of libraries of compounds with the long-term objective of developing novel therapeutic agents or biochemical probes (irreversible inhibitors, imaging agents).  

Future Plans

 

Representative Publications

 

Publications:

Bolstad, D. B., Bolstad, E. S. D., Wright, D. L. and Anderson, A. C. “Dihydrofolate reductase inhibitors: developments in antiparasitic chemotherapy.”  Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents, 2008,18,143-157.

Pelphrey, P.M., Bolstad, D.B. and Wright, D.L. “Versatile Oxabicyclic Synthons:  Studies on C8-Oxygenated Eunicellin Diterpenes.”  SynLett, 2007, 2647-2650.

Bolstad, D.B. and Diaz, A.L. “Synthesis and Characterization of Nanocrystalline Y2O3:Eu3+ Phosphor:  An Upper-Division Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory.” J. Chem. Ed., 2002, 79, 1101-1104.

Patents:

US 60/795,602: Gerdes, J.M., Bolstad, D.B. and Kusche, B.R. “Enantiomers of 2’-Fluoralkyl-6-nitroquipazine as Serotonin Transporter Positron Emission Tomography Imaging Agents and Antidepressant Therapeutics.”  Submitted to the US patent office April 2007.

Presentations:

Bolstad, D.B., Wilson, P.A., Gerdes, J.M., Gibbs, A.R. and Biegon, A. “Ligand studies for the NMDA receptor channel: Synthesis and binding profiles of N-(2-chloro-5-thiomethylphenyl)-N’-(3-substituted-phenyl)-N’-methylguanidines.”  225th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 23-27, 2003.  –Poster Presentation

Bolstad, D.B., Chandler-Ferguson, D., DeFina, S.C., Gerdes, J.M., Walker, M.A., Weller, M.L., Wilson, P.A., Ono, M.A. and Taylor, S.E. “Serotonin transporter inhibitor ligands:  Synthesis and biochemical studies of 2’-Methoxymethyl-6-nitroquipazine.”  222nd ACS National Meeting, Chicago, IL, August 26-30, 2001.  –Poster Presentation

Return to People