Background

Prof. Zajc obtained the PhD degree from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and did postdoctoral work as a Fogarty Fellow at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda. She moved from University of Ljubljana, where she was a tenured faculty member, to The City College of New York, where she is currently Professor of Chemistry with tenure.

Research

Our research is in the area of organofluorine chemistry, with the focus on development of novel regiospecific fluorination methods, and the use of fluorine as a probe in studies related to metabolism and biological activity of environmental pollutants. The importance for this area of research is exemplified in the fact that over 150 commercial pharmaceuticals contain fluorine atom.

In the area of methods development, novel fluorinated building blocks are synthesized and their reactivities are studied. These building blocks are then used for polyfunctionalization, via a modular synthesis approach. Specifically, we are developing a series of fluorinated Julia-Kocienski reagents, where fluorine atom is introduced via metalation-electrophilic fluorination. To gain a deeper understanding of the chemical methodology, reactivities of these reagents are studied in olefination reactions, and also compared with unfluorinated analogs. The overall goal of our work is the development of a “chemical fluoroolefination toolbox” for the synthesis of diverse functionalized fluorinated alkenes. We are also involved with the development of biologically important compounds, such as potential anti-tumor and antiviral agents, via our fluorination chemistry approaches.

In the studies related to the influence of environmental pollutants on human health, we are utilizing fluorine atom to modulate biological activity. In this area, our research involves synthesis of fluorinated analogs of environmental pollutants, their putative metabolites and DNA conjugates, for structure activity studies. This often entails the development of stereoselective methodologies, evaluation of chirality in products, and multistep syntheses.