Stephen Cutler is a natural products chemist whose research interests are focused on the isolation, biological evaluation and structural elucidation of bioactive secondary metabolites from nature, including the accession of fungi and plant that have unique properties. In addition, his work includes the design and synthesis of derivatives of the metabolites as ligands to serve as probes to investigate pharmacologic receptors. For 10 years Stephen served as the principal investigator of an NIH-COBRE center grant. Main objectives of his research are to develop new approaches and concepts to designing highly selective ligands. Most of his recent research activities have involved the isolation and structural elucidation of biologically active natural products that are selective for the cannabinoid and opioid receptor types. These studies have utilized both cloned receptors (developed in his laboratory) and animal studies as an aid to obtain insight into the recognition of ligands by these CNS and peripheral receptors.
