Rate My Professor Takashi Suyama

Dr. Takashi Suyama serves as Assistant Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Forensic Science at Waynesburg University. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with a Biochemistry option from Oregon State University and a PhD in Oceanography, specializing in Organic Chemistry, from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. After completing his doctorate, Suyama held a postdoctoral position at the College of Pharmacy at Oregon State University. He joined Waynesburg University in 2017, where he teaches organic chemistry courses such as Organic Chemistry II and directs an interdisciplinary undergraduate research program in natural product chemistry and medicinal chemistry. This program collaborates with researchers from West Virginia University, the University of California, San Diego, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Suyama's research interests center on medicinally useful natural products, chemicals produced by organisms for survival advantages, integrating synthetic organic chemistry, natural products chemistry, medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, ecology, and pharmacology. His students engage in hands-on activities, including synthesizing molecules and elucidating structures of unknown compounds. In 2021, the National Science Foundation awarded him a $225,000 grant to support undergraduate research on the directed evolution of cytochrome P450 enzymes from marine bacteria for synthesizing pyrrole-containing marine natural products with medicinal potential. Key publications include 'Total Synthesis of Laucysteinamide A, a Monomeric Congener of the Cyanobacterial Natural Product Marthiapeptide A' in the Journal of Natural Products (2021), co-authored with Waynesburg students and Scripps collaborators; 'Discovery of Novel Tyrosinase Inhibitors From Marine Cyanobacteria' in Frontiers in Microbiology (2022); and 'Albumin-ruthenium catalyst conjugate for bio-orthogonal protein cleavage' (2024). Additional work features 2D NMR methods for detecting and quantifying heroin and fentanyl derivatives in forensic samples. Suyama's efforts have led to undergraduate research distinctions, publications in top journals, and presentations at national conferences like the American Chemical Society meetings, enhancing student preparation for graduate studies and careers in science.