USDA-ARS
National Center for Natural Products Research
Room 3004
Tel: 662-915-2019
email: cmizuno@olemiss.edu

Cassia Mizuno works with design, synthesis and docking studies of stilbene analogs.

CASSIA MIZUNO

e-mail: cmizuno@olemiss.edu

SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS

• Strong ability in synthesis of organic molecules with biological importance.
• Experience in multi-step synthesis, heterocyclic chemistry and palladium coupling.
• Able to operate several types of structural elucidation instrumentation including NMR, FT-IR, LC-MS, GC-MS and analytical isolation methods including HPLC and GC.
• Successfully worked in a multidisciplinary group of computational chemists and pharmacologists.
• Fluent in Portuguese.

EDUCATION

• August 2001 - May 2006. Ph.D. student in Medicinal Chemistry at University of Mississippi . Thesis Title: “Design and Synthesis of Novel Dual PPARgamma Agonists/ Angiotensin II Antagonists for Treatment of Type II Diabetes and Hypertension”. Advisor: Dr. Mitchell Avery.
• February 1996- December 2000- B.S. Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Sao Paulo, Ribeirao Preto, Brazil .

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

August 2001 – May 2006: Doctoral Research, University of Mississippi .

• Designed and synthesized benzimidazole and tetrazole heterocyclic compounds of varying size.
• Succeeded in improving the PPARgamma activity of Telmisartan, a potent AT₁ antagonist and moderate PPARgamma agonist
• Successfully designed and synthesized a novel PPARalpha/gamma partial agonist.
• Synthesized a novel potent non peptide AT₁ antagonist.
• Developed multi-steps synthesis up to 13 steps, including microwave and parallel synthesis.
• Trained and guided undergraduate students.

WORK EXPERIENCE

August 2000- August 2001- as visiting scientist funded through USDA-FAS-ICD.

	·        Worked on isolation of phytotoxic constituents from Sorghum bicolor, and identification of these compounds using NMR and MS.

      	·        Performed structural modification of sorgoleone, the major phytotoxin in Sorghum.

	·        Synthesized stilbene compounds.

	·        Succeed in the quantification of anti-cancer stilbene compounds from berries using HPLC and GC.

June 2006- Present- USDA-ARS- Postdoctoral Associate.

• Synthesized stilbenes compounds with pharmaceutical and agricultural importance.

• Succeed in establishing a more effective method to synthesize stilbene compounds, with better yields compared with the previous method used in the lab.

• Successfully increased the production of analogs in a short period of time.

• Working with docking of resveratrol analogs inside PPARα for future library construction.

COMPUTER SKILLS

• ACD_Labs, Chemdraw, Excel, PowerPoint, SciFinder.

AFFILIATIONS

• American Chemical Society

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

• “Design and Synthesis of the First Generation of Dithiolane Thiazolidinedione and Phenylacetic Acid Based PPAR gamma Agonists.” Amar G. Chittiboyina, Meenakshi S. Venkatraman, ,Cassia S. Mizuno, Prashant V Desai, Akshay Patny, Stephen C. Benson, Christopher Ho, Theodore W. Kurtz, Harrihar A. Pershadsingh  and Mitchell A. Avery. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (2006), 49(14), 4072-4084

• “Design and Synthesis of Novel PPAR gamma Agonists and Angiotensin II Antagonists for Treatment of Type II Diabetes and Hypertension”. Cassia S. Mizuno, Amar G. Chittiboyina, Prashant V. Desai, Akshay Patny, Stephen C. Benson, Theodore W. Kurtz, Harrihar A. Pershadsingh  and Mitchell A. Avery. (Under preparation).

• “Alpha-Lipoic Acid-Based PPAR gamma Agonists for the Treatment of Type II Diabetes.” Mizuno, Cassia S.; Chittiboyna, Amar G.; Venkatraman, Meenakshi S.; Avery, Mitchell A.; Meingassner, Josef; Ho, Christopher; Benson, Stephen C.; Varani, James; Ellis, Charles N.; Kurtz, Theodore W.; Pershadsingh, Harrihar A. 229th ACS National Meeting, San Diego, CA, United States, March 13-17, 2005 and MALTO Meeting, Oxford, MS. May 22-24, 2005.

• “Synthesis of Novel Dual Angiotensin II Antagonists/PPAR gamma Agonists.” Cassia S. Mizuno , Amar G. Chittiboyina, Prashant Desai, Akshay Patny and Mitchell A. Avery. MALTO Meeting, Monroe , LA. United States, May 19-21, 2002 . Podium presentation.

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