Chemistry Department
Dr. Raul Rodriguez Berrios

Raúl Rodríguez Berríos

Chemistry Graduate and Undergraduate Program

Assistant Professor of Chemistry
University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus (UPR-RP)
Office location: CN:228
Laboratory location: CN-202B
Phone: 787-764-0000 x 88514
Laboratory Phone: 787-764-0000 x 88505
email: raulr.rodriguez@upr.edu

Webpage: https://reu-prclimb.weebly.com/raul-rodriguez.html

and https://natsci.uprrp.edu/cahreus/equipo/raul-rodriguez-ph-d/

Research Interests

– Chemical education research in organic chemistry and biochemistry:

  • The objectives are:
    • Develop new undergraduate experiments
    • Integrate technology and research-grade instrumentation in undergraduate laboratories and lectures.
    • Assess the student performance in traditional vs non-traditional lectures
    • Create new elective chemistry courses

– Biochemistry research: 

  • The objectives are:
    • Study the biological activity of different ferrocenyl derivatives, coumain derivatives, and azo-dyes compounds as antimicrobial and anticancer drugs.
    • Study the mechanism of action of the new drugs.

– Organic synthesis projects:

  • The objectives are:
    • The synthesis of ferrocenyl derivatives using esterification, amidation, and F-C acylation reactions.
    • The synthesis and characterization of a library of azo-dyes compounds
    • The synthesis and characterization of coumarins derivatives.
    • Synthesis and characterization of metallocenes functionalized with sex steroids

Research
Dr. Rodriguez laboratory has two areas of research: chemistry education research in organic chemistry (CEROC) and biochemistry and organic chemistry synthesis. The CEROC projects include developing new undergraduate experiments and the integration of technology in undergraduate laboratories for organic chemistry and biochemistry, and the study of student performance in traditional vs online lectures, experiments and activities to improve the BS chemistry curriculum and introduce new elective courses. In the area of organic synthesis, the aims include the synthesis and characterization of new metallocene (i.e. Fe and Ti) and azo-dyes functionalized with steroids and coumarin derivatives. The new synthetic derivates will be evaluated in terms of the potential to be used as new antimicrobial and drug candidates.

Awards, Fellowships, and Grants:

  • 2023-2025: Fondos Institucionales para la Investigación (FIPI)
  • 2022: Seed grant of the Sloan Scholars Mentoring Network (SSMN) Grant of the Social Science Research Council and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
  • 2019: Faculty Summer Research Internship by the Puerto Rico Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation of the University of Puerto Rico (PR-LSAMP)
  • 2014: Iberoamerican Fellowship of Santander Universidades.
  • 2011: Young Puerto Rico Scientist Awardee of the 43rd IUPAC World Chemistry Congress, San Juan, PR.
  • 2011:Postdoctoral Fellow of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS).
  • 2005: Alfred P. Sloan Scholarship (NACME) fellowship

Mentor of :
UPR-RP ACS Project Seed
NSF-REU: PR CLIMB program
STEP-UP HS program

Publications:
Rodríguez-Berríos, R.R *; Ríos-Delgado, A.M.; Perdomo-Lizardo, A.P.; Cardona-Rivera, A.E.; Vidal-Rosado, Á.G.; Narváez-Lozano, G.A.; Nieves-Quiñones, I.A.; Rodríguez-Vargas, J.A.; Álamo-Diverse, K.Y.; Lebrón-Acosta, N.; Medina-Berríos, N.; Rivera-Lugo, P. S.; Avellanet-Crespo, Y. A. and Ortiz-Colón, Y. W. Extraction, Isolation, Characterization, and Bioactivity of Polypropionates and Related Polyketide Metabolites from the Caribbean Region, Antibiotics, 2023, 12, 1087. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12071087

Rodríguez-Berríos, R. R. *; Isbel, S., and Bugarin, A. Epoxide-Based Synthetic Approaches toward Polypropionates and Related Bioactive Natural Products, Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(7), 6195; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24076195

Patil, S. A.; Nesaragi, A.; Rodríguez-Berrios, R. R.; Hampton, S. M.; Bugarin, A.*, Shivaputra A. Patil*  Coumarin triazoles as Potential Antimicrobial Agents, Antibiotics, 2023, 12(1), 160; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12010160.

Prieto, J. A.*; Torres-Rentas, J.; Rodríguez Berrios, R. Regiocontrolled ring opening of monoprotected 2,3-epoxy diols using alkynyl aluminum reagents. Synthesis of differentially monoprotected alkynyl triol derivatives. Synlett, 2014, 25, 433-437, DOI: 10.1055/s-0033-1340332

Rodríguez Berrios, R. R.; Torres, G.; Prieto, J. A.* Stereoselective VO(acac)2 catalyzed epoxidation of acyclic homoallylic diols: complementary preparation of C2-Syn-3,4-epoxy alcohols. Tetrahedron, 2011, 67, 830-836, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tet.2010.11.079

Stereoselective Construction of all-anti Polypropionate Modules: Synthesis of the C5-C10 Fragment of Streptovaricin U. Authors: Wildeliz Torres; Raúl R. Rodríguez; José A. Prieto, The Journal of the Organic Chemistry, 2009, vol 74, pp 2447-2451, DOI: 10.1021/jo8026966

 

 

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