Application-oriented organic synthesis

Asta Žukauskaitė research group is interested in synthesis and application potential of indoles and their bioisosteres. Her team members devote synthetic efforts towards naturally occurring, putative and nature inspired indolic compounds. They adapt and, if necessary, develop synthetic methodologies to prepare isotopically labelled internal standards of naturally occurring indoles (i.e., auxins, tryptophan metabolites, etc.), enabling their identification and quantification in plant and/or animal tissues, which is essential for physiological studies investigating their mode of action. Fluorescently labelled auxins are being developed for visualization of auxin transport, as well as tissue-specific and subcellular localization in planta, without the use of marker or reporter lines.