Nicholas H. Oberlies

Nicholas H. Oberlies is the Patricia A. Sullivan Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Graduate Director (MS and PhD) in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNC-Greensboro). He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Miami University (1992) and a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy from Purdue University (1997). Before joining UNC-Greensboro in 2009, he conducted research at the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) under Drs. Mansukh Wani and Monroe Wall, renowned for discovering Taxol and Camptothecin.

• Serves as Principal Investigator for projects funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), and National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM).
• Research focuses on isolating bioactive compounds from fungi, plants, and bacteria for drug discovery and herbal drug standardization.
• Key projects include anticancer drug leads from filamentous fungi, milk thistle's hepatoprotective mechanisms, and drug-herb interaction studies.

His lab collaborates across disciplines, including pharmacology, virology, and metabolism. Notable awards include the Matt Suffness Young Investigator Award and recognition as a Fellow and Past President of the American Society of Pharmacognosy.

Current research teams include postdoctoral scientists, graduate (Ph.D.) students, and undergraduates. His group emphasizes team-based approaches, with projects published in journals like Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Nature Chemical Biology.

Labs and facilities include advanced NMR, mass spectrometry, and cell culture setups. Ongoing work explores natural product synthesis, drug delivery systems (e.g., lipid nanoparticles), and metabolomics-guided studies on honeybee diets.