Dr. Julia Duncan

Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry

Research Interests

Research in the Duncan laboratory involves investigation of plant-microbe interactions within the rhizosphere of Arctic ecosystems. The rhizosphere is a complex chemical environment directly associated with plant roots. The influence of biotic and abiotic stressors induces dynamic chemical feedback mechanisms between microbes and their plant hosts. In turn, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites by both microbes and plants is used to respond to and cope with environmental change.

The Arctic is home to a plethora of medicinal plants, well known to Indigenous communities. For hundreds or thousands of years, Native Peoples of the Arctic have used medicinal plants for treatment of illness and chronic conditions. Though these plants have a long medicinal history, few have been validated by modern scientific techniques that seek to elucidate natural products with therapeutic value. 

Our broad goals are multifaceted; (1) to discover bioactive compounds from Arctic medicinal plants via bioassay guided fractionation, (2) understand the mechanistic foundation for how abiotic and biotic stress induces biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, and (3) synthetically validate the structural characteristic of bioactive compounds and confirm the structural motifs that allow bioactivity. 

The Duncan lab is always interested in accepting undergraduate and graduate students. Interested applicants should contact Dr. Duncan directly to inquire about research opportunities.

Selected Publications

(1) Nicastri, K.A.; Zappia, S.A.; Pratt, J.C.; Duncan, J.M.; Guzei, I.A. Fernandez, I.; Schomaker, J.M. “Tunable aziridinium ylide reactivity: non-covalent interactions enable divergent product outcomes,” ACS Catal. 2022, 12, 1572-1580. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.1c05413 

(2) Duncan, J.M.; Li, L.; Mohammadrezaei, V.; Geary, L.M. “Scandium and dimethylaminopyridine catalyzed dehydrative coupling of secondary benzylic and primary alcohols to synthesize unsymmetrical ethers,” Preprint at http://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv.12370574.v1 

(3) Roberson, M.G.; Duncan, J.M. ; Flieth, K.J.; Geary, L.M.; Tucker, M.J. “Photo-initiated rupture of azobenzene micelles to enable the spectroscopic analysis of antimicrobial peptide dynamics,” RSC Adv., 2020, 10, 21464-21472. https://doi.org/10.1039/D0RA01920H 

Degrees

  • B.S. 2014, Chemistry - Biochemistry Concentration, ix
  • Ph.D. 2020, Chemistry - Organic Chemistry Path, University of Nevada Reno

Contact

Phone: 907-474-1559

Email: jmduncan2@alaska.edu

Address:

Julia Duncan
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
ix
1930 Yukon Drive
Room 174
ix, AK 99775-6160