Department of Pharmacognosy
Graduate Students & Visiting Scholars
The Department of Pharmacognosy is host to Graduate Students and Visitng Scholars from all over the world!
Graduate Students
Sam Abbas
Graduate Student
Research Advisor:Mark T. Hamann
Faser 400
662-915-1703
Mr. Abbas received a Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology with a minor in chemistry from Mississippi State University. He is a second year master's degree candidate in pharmaceutical sciences and the recipient of the Graduate School Honors Fellowship. Samuel's research interests include isolating and elucidating secondary metabolites from Arctic sponge species as well as epigenetic techniques to elicit production of new secondary metabolites from marine derived bacteria.
Mohamed Abouelsaoud Albadry
Visiting Scholar
Research Advisor: Mark Hamann
Mr. Albadry received a Masters degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Al‐Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. He is a visiting scholar funded by the Egyptian government and is currently focused on isolating bioactive metabolites from the Bryopsis genus of marine algae.
Kimberly Auker
Graduate Student
Teaching Assistant
Research Advisor: Daneel Ferreira
Faser 432
662-915-2013
Ms. Auker received a Bachelor of Science degree in Botany with a minor in Wildlife Biology from Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA. She was an instructor in the Forestry Department at Central Oregon Community College before joining the Department of Pharmacognosy at the University of Mississippi. Her current research involves the isolation and structure elucidation of anti-adhesive compounds from cranberry (Vaccimium macrocarpon) products and urine after cranberry juice consumption. Other areas of research interest include the role of complex carbohydrates in cellular communication between bacteria and the human body and the contribution of the metabolism of plant compounds by gastrointestinal microbiota to human health.
John Bowling
Graduate Student
Research Advisor:Mark T. Hamann
Faser 400
662-915-1703
Mr. Bowling received his Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry from Pepperdine University and Master of Science in Pharmacognosy from the University of Mississippi. He is a trained nuclear magnetic resonance technician and was the recipient of the 2011 American Chemical Society Ole Miss local section pharmaceutical sciences award. He is interested in semi‐synthetic parallel synthesis, isolation and elucidation of small molecules and peptides, and in vitro assay development. He is currently focused on characterizing marine sponge derived knot peptides, which have been shown to enhance the calcium ion influx of stimulated neuronal cells.
Priscilla Valadares Campana
Graduate Student
Teaching Assistant
Research Advisor: Daneel Ferreira
Faser
662-915-
Bachelor in Pharmacy and Master degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Works at the research department of Ezequiel Dias Foundation, Belo Horizonte, Brazil in the isolation of secondary metabolites of plants from Brazilian cerrado. Awarded with a fellowship from the Brazilian government to conduct research on the isolation and structure elucidation of phenolic compounds from Brazilian plants.
Michael Chan
Graduate Student
Sponsor: Iklhas Khan
National Center for Natural Products Research
662-915-1014
Mr. Chan received his Bachelor of Technology in Environmental Health from the BC Institute of Technology in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Upon graduation he was worked in BCIT's Natural Health and Food Products Research Group, focusing on analytical method development and validation and regulatory affairs projects. Mr. Chan's research interests are focused on the development of analytical and statistical methodologies to access the quality, safety and efficacy of dietary supplements and natural health products.
machan@olemiss.edu
Christina Coleman
Graduate Student
Research Advisor: Daneel Ferreira
Faser 432
662-915-2013
Ms. Coleman graduated Magna Cum Laude from Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, as a University Honors Scholar with a Bachelors of Science in Botany. During her undergraduate program she participated in three different research projects examining the ultrastructure of hardwood trees, the biosynthetic pathways of Arabidopsis thaliana, and the potential for heavy metals present in hyperaccumulator plants to prevent insect herbivory. Her research at the University of Mississippi under the mentorship of Dr. Daneel Ferreira has focused on the identification of cranberry phytochemicals and mammalian metabolites of cranberry juice which are able to prevent microbial adhesion to cell surfaces. These cranberry juice metabolites are believed to play a role in the ability of cranberry juice to help prevent urinary tract infections. An additional area of her research has dealt with the application of Electronic Circular Dichroism for the determination of absolute configuration of natural products, especially flavonoids. During her time as a graduate student in the Department of Pharmacognosy, she has also served extensively as a teaching assistant for two undergraduate Pharmacy courses, PHCG 321 and PHCG 422. Her professional interests include continued work with the isolation and identification of natural products which play a role in human health, especially with regards to plant and microbial metabolomics and chemical ecology. She also is actively interested in improving scientific communication and education, in general, and actively supports the promotion of the STEM disciplines.
Michael Cunningham
Graduate Student
Research Advisor: Ikhlas Khan
662-915-1145
Mr. Cunningham received his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Mississippi State University. Prior research areas include molecular genetics, enzymology, and organic synthesis. His interests include organic synthesis and optimizing drug-like properties of bioactive secondary metabolites. He is currently focused on isolation and identification of natural products from Eurycoma longifolia.
Sandipan Datta
Graduate Student
Research Advisor: Dale Nagle
Faser 410
662-915-1705
Mr. Datta received his Bachelor in Pharmacy degree from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences and his Master degree in Pharmacy with an emphasis in Pharmacognosy from Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University, Pune in India. He received the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) scholarship from the Govt. of India from 2004 to 2006. He was awarded NIH pre-doctoral fellowships (2008 and 2009) to conduct research in the area of natural products and neuroscience. His general area of interest is molecular-targeted drug discovery from natural products. His current research is focused on identification and in vitro evaluation of natural products that target cellular bioenergetic pathways in human tumor-derived cell lines. He has served as the president of the Graduate Student Council (2010-2011) and has been a member of Rho Chi honor society since 2009.
Xiang Fu
Graduate Student
Research Advisor: Ikhlas Khan
National Center for Natural Products Research
662-915-1033
Mr. Fu received his Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacology from China Pharmaceutical University in Nanjing, China, and received his Master of Science degree in Phytochemistry from Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China. His interest is on understanding the active principle of medicinal plants by isolation and structure identification of secondary metabolites from medicinal plants. His work involves extraction of plant materials, fractionation and purification of plant extracts by different chromatographic techniques and recrystallization, and structure elucidation using spectrometric methods, such as MS, IR, UV, NMR, CD, X-ray, etc., as well as some chemical modification methods such as hydrolysis, structure derivatization in order to understand the chemical properties and confirm identification. He is currently working on the South African medicinal plant Sutherlandia frutescens (Family: Fabaceae) which is rumored to have anticancer, anti-HIV, and antidiabetic activities. He received a student poster award of third place at the 9th Annual Oxford International Conference on the Science of Botanicals (ICSB) in 2010 for a presentation entitled "Rearranged cycloartanol glycosides from Sutherlandia frutescens".
Vedanjali Gogineni
Visiting Scholar
Research Advisor:Mark T. Hamann
Faser 400
662-915-1703
Ms. Gogineni received her Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from the University of Jawaharial Nehru Technological University in Hyderabad, India. While completing her degree, she conducted research on the effects of Carvedilol on Gliclazide induced hypoglycemia. She received her Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from Fairleigh Dickson University in Teaneck, New Jersey. She is currently focused on isolating novel secondary metabolites from marine sponges collected through collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the artic region.
M. Christopher James
Graduate Student
Research Advisor:Mark T. Hamann
Faser 400
662-915-1703
Mr. James received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. While completing his degree, he conducted research in an evolutionary biology laboratory and also a protein biochemistry laboratory. He was awarded the Undergraduate Research Stipend Award for his work on nuclear receptors. He is interested in how secondary metabolites contribute to symbiotic relationships and is currently using epigenetic techniques to study the secondary< metabolite production of the plant pathogen and symbiont Xylella fastidiosa.
Mallika Kumarihamy
Graduate Student
Research Advisor: Daneel Ferreira
National Center for Natural Products Research
662-915-1661
Ms. Mallika Kumarihamy received her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Master of Philosophy in Natural Products Chemistry from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. While completing the degree, she conducted research on Chemistry and bioactivity studies of some Sri Lankan medicinal plants. She worked as a Research Assistant at the Institute of Fundamental Studies, Kandy, Sri Lanka, and Department of Chemistry, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Her current research project involves isolation of fungi from plants, optimization of culture conditions of media for the production of biological active compounds, isolation and characterization of biologically active compounds from fungi.
Kevin Lewellyn
Graduate Student
Research Advisor: Jordan Zjawiony
Faser 408
662-915-1704
Kevin received a Bachelor of Science degree in forensic chemistry from the University of Mississippi. His major research area is the synthesis of central nervous system active natural product analogs. More specifically he works with marine derived aplysinopsin analogs which possess CNS activity. He has also worked on the semi-synthesis of salvinorin analogs which are potent kappa opioid receptor ligands.
Joonseok Oh
Graduate Student
Research Advisor:Mark T. Hamann
Faser 400
662-915-1703
Mr. Oh received his Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from Yeungnam University in Daegu, South Korea. He received the 2nd place award from the American Chemical Society Ole Miss Session Poster contest in 2011 for his presentation on novel secondary metabolites from endangered species. His research interests focus on the isolation of interesting drug leads from endangered species including Lindera melissifolia, an endangered species endemic to the southern US. He is also involved in the elucidation of drug modes of actions utilizing computational modeling techniques.
Prabhakar Reddy Polepally, Ph.D
Post Doctoral Research Associate
Research Advisor: Dr. Jordan K. Zjawiony
Faser 408
662-915-
Dr. Reddy received his Master of Science in organic chemistry from Osmania University, India, and received his Ph.D degree from Acharya Nagarjuna University (work done at Indian Institute of Chemical Technology) India. Currently he is working for NIH sponsored project on synthesis of Salvinorin A analogs to Kappa Opioid Receptors (KOR) and it’s related analgesic studies. His Research mainly focuses on isolation, semi-synthesis, purification and characterization of bioactive natural products from medicinal plants and synthesis of new derivatives for bioactive lead natural products.
Yelkaira Vasquez
Graduate Student
Research Advisor: Ikhlas Khan
National Center for Natural Products Research
662-915-1033
I received my Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from University of Panama. My research is focused on the isolation and characterization of new secondary metabolites from Panamanian plant Talisia nervosa Radlk (Sapindaceae), also called Mamon de montaña, that may have a potential utility against inflammation, obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
Bin Wang
Graduate Student
Research Advisor: Mark Hamann
Faser 441
662-915-7037
Ms. Wang received her Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy and Master of Science degree in Pharmaceutical Analysis from The Second Military Medical University in Shanghai, China. She was awarded the Triton Fellowship from 2008 to 2009 and has been a member of the ROCHI pharmacy society from 2009. Her research areas are in the discovery of anticancer drug leads from marine organisms either by isolation or chemical modification.
Amanda Waters
Graduate Student
Research Advisor:Mark T. Hamann
Faser 400
662-915-1703
Ms. Waters received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Oklahoma. While completing her undergraduate degree, she conducted research in the University of Oklahoma Natural Products Discovery Group and completed internships at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Hollings Marine Laboratory. She is currently a National Science Foundation Pre‐doctoral Fellow. Amanda's research interests include the structural elucidation of the karlotoxins from Karlodinium sp. and isolation and characterization of secondary metabolites from marine and terrestrial microbes.
Chinni Yalamanchili
Graduate Student
Research Advisor: Ikhlas Khan
Phone: 622-915-1145
Chinni Yalamanchili has a Bachelors in Pharmacy (B.Pharm) from Acharya Nagarjuna University,Guntur, India. While completing his degree he conducted a project on “Preparation and Evaluation of various sustained release tablets of diltiazem HCl”. Currently, he is working on the asymmetric synthesis of some isoflavonoids and biological characterization of formulations of traditional medicine.
Xichun Zhang
Visiting Scholar
Research Advisor: Mark Hamann
400B Faser
Mr. Zhang received his Masters degree in Nutrition from Shanxi Agricultural University in Shanxi, China and his Doctors of Science degree in Ecology from China Agricultural University in Beijing, China. He is a visiting scholar funded by the Chinese government and is currently working on the marine bacteria Streptomycetes H668 to isolate bioactive metabolites with antimalarial activity.
Yike Zhou
Visiting Scholar
Research Advisor:Mark Hamann
354 Faser
662-915-6795
Mr. Zou received his Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and Master of Science in Medicinal Chemistry from Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Chengdu, China. His interests include organic synthesis, electronic chemistry, quantum chemistry, and computational chemistry. Currently, he is using computational chemistry to study novel drug leads discovered from marine sponges in the artic region through collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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