Thank you for visiting the home page of the Carr Group.

We are now part of the Department of Chemistry at Nazarbayev University, School of Science and Technology, located in Astana, Kazakhstan.

My lab group consists of a number of enthusiastic chemistry majors pursuing scientific fields in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and chemistry graduate school. The students receive firsthand experience with the various instruments available to us, namely, a JEOL 300 MHz NMR spectrometer, a Perkin Elmer Spectrum 100 FTIR spectrometer, Synthos 3000 microwave reaction systems, optical polarimeters, Exeter Analytical CE-440 Elemental Analyzer, Shimadzu RF-5301PL Spectrofluorophotometer, and a Varian Chrompack CP-3800 gas chromatograph. In addition, and most importantly, my students acquire critical thinking skills as they channel through the tumultuous but exciting waters of organic synthesis.

Students interested in joining my lab group are encouraged to stop by and speak with me and enjoy a lab tour. The Carr group offers a great environment with adequate resources for undergraduate research.

The Carr research group focuses on the use of enzymes in organic synthesis to produce highly enantiopure or enantio-enriched chiral substrates as we focus on the total synthesis of small organic molecules (natural product synthesis), glycolipid modification and amino acid synthesis. The use of enzymes as catalysts in organic chemistry is a rapidly expanding sub-discipline of the field because enzymes tend to have excellent regio-, chemo-, and stereoselectivity coupled with the fact that they display a high catalytic turnover rate in organic solvents and most of all - they are biodegradable.

I encourage you to explore my website to gain further knowledge of our group and the research thus conducted. Feel free to send me an email should you have additional questions.

Cheers,
Dr. Carr