I obtained my First Class Honours BSc degree in Food Chemistry (double minor in General Chemistry and Management Studies) from the University of the West Indies Mona in 2016. As an undergraduate I received several awards such as the Wilfred Chan award for excellence in Organic Chemistry in 2015 and Diamond status in Chemistry Honour Society 2016. My passion for Chemistry drove me to pursue further studies. Currently I am a PhD candidate within the Chemistry department where my focus is on the synthesis of 2-substituted naphthoquinone oxazole.

Naphthoquinones are crucial structures within the field of medicinal chemistry due to their many and varied biological activities. The incorporation of a heterocycle onto the quinone ring to produce tri- and tetracyclic cores has been shown to enhance cytotoxicity. We are interested in preparing naphthoquinone oxazoles which have demonstrated antibacterial and anticancer activity. 

To date, only a few oxazoles derivatives of naphthoquinone have been made with the methods for their preparations being limited in nature. My project is geared towards the synthesis of 2-substituted naphthoquinone oxazole derivatives using milder conditions that can also easily generate a library of compounds. Once synthesized, biological assays will be done to investigate the Structure Activity Relationship (SAR). This work has the potential to discover new drug lead compounds. So far, I have prepared a wide range these oxazoles derivatives and this work was presented at the 27th and 28th Mona Symposium -Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry.