Professor Buszek earned his B.S. degrees in Chemistry/Biology from UC Irvine and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from UCLA. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, he was appointed professor of chemistry/biochemistry at Kansas State University (1991-2003) where he conducted research in organic synthesis, medicinal, pharmaceutical and neurological chemistry. Professor Buszek was co-founder, co-principal investigator, and senior investigator at the NIH Center of Excellence in Chemical Methodology and Library Development (KU-CMLD) at the University of Kansas (2003-2014) where his research was instrumental in developing a new class of drug for the treatment of leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease.
Professor Buszek has held faculty positions at UC Berkeley, Brown University, and other prominent institutions, trained over 50 postdoctoral researchers/graduate students, received over $20M in research funding, and is the founder/co-founder of several companies. He has received numerous awards for research, teaching, and service.
Professor Buszek raises horses and dairy cattle on his Kansas farm, and trains Labrador Retrievers for service and therapy work. He is an accomplished electric bassist and composer.
Degrees and Experience
B.S., University of California, Irvine (1987)
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles (1990)
Harvard University Postdoctoral Fellow Chemistry (1990 – 1993)
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Kansas State University (1993-2003)
Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, UMKC (2003-2007)
Professor, Department of Chemistry, UMKC (2007 – present)
Research Description
The primary objectives in the Buszek research laboratories are to discover, design, develop, and execute practical, efficient, economical, and scalable routes to important and biologically relevant natural products and to apply these fundamental advances to drug discovery and the development of new clinical therapeutics for human and veterinary medicine. Toward these goals, our highly interdisciplinary and collaborative research program involves, inter alia, medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry; natural products total synthesis; development of new reaction methodology; library development; and computational, physical, and theoretical organic chemistry.
Representative Publications
Chandrasoma, N.; Pathmanathan, S.; Buszek, K. R. “A Practical, Multi-Gram Synthesis of (±)-Herbindole A, (±)-Herbindole B, and (±)-Herbindole C from a Common Intermediate via 6,7-Indole Aryne Cycloaddition and Pd(0)-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions”, Tetrahedron Lett. 2015, 56, 3507-3510. (Harry Wasserman Special Memorial Issue)
Perchellet, J.-P. H.; Perchellet, E. M.; Singh, C. R.; Monnett, M. T.; Studer, E. R.; Thornton, P. D.; Brown, N.; Hill, D.; Neuenswander, Lushington, G. H.; Santini, C.; Buszek, K. R. “Mechanisms by which Synthetic 6,7-Annulated-4-substituted Indole Compounds with Anti-proliferative Activity Disrupt Mitosis and Block Cytokinesis in Human HL-60 Tumor Cells In Vitro”, Anticancer Res. 2014, 34, 1643-1656.
Nerurkar, A.; Chandrasoma, N.; Maina, L.; Brassfield, A.; Luo, D.; Brown, N.; Buszek, K. R. “Further Investigations into the Regioselectivity of 6,7-Indole Aryne Cycloadditions with 2-Substituted Furans: Remarkable Contrasteric Preference Depends on Pyrrole and Benzene Ring Substitution”, Synthesis, 2013, 45, 1843-1845.
Thornton, P. D.; Brown, N.; Hill, D.; Neuenswander, B.; Lushington, G. H.; Santini, C.; Buszek, K. R. “Application of 6,7-Indole Aryne Cycloaddition and Pd(0)-Catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura and Buchwald-Hartwig Cross-Coupling Reactions for the Preparation of Annulated Indole Libraries”, ACS Comb. Sci. 2011, 13, 443-448.
Garr, A. N.; Luo, D.; Brown, N.; Cramer, C. J.; Buszek, K. R. “Experimental and Theoretical Investigations into the Unusual Regioselectivity of 4,5-, 5,6-, and 6,7-Indole Aryne Cycloadditions”, Org. Lett. 2010, 12, 96-99.