W&L Chemistry Professor Publishes Paper in the Journal of Organic Chemistry

By Brian Laubscher
June 16, 2026

Erin Gray, assistant professor of chemistry at Washington and Lee University, recently co-authored a paper along with several of her former research students in The Journal of Organic Chemistry (JOC).

The article, "Photocatalytic Iminyl Radical Cyclization for the Synthesis of Quinazolinones," resulted from Gray's work with her research team, which included Joseph Lee '22, Janeth Sandoval '22, Jensen Rocha '23, Hannah Spencer '23, Neissa Usanase '24, Mohammed Albotabeekh '25 and Joyce Yoo '26. Together, they developed a simpler, greener way to make a family of molecules called quinazolinones, which are building blocks found in drugs used to fight cancer, inflammation and bacterial infections.

Existing methods for making these molecules typically require expensive metal catalysts, extreme temperatures or large amounts of harsh chemical reagents. The W&L team discovered that by shining blue LED light on an inexpensive dye catalyst in the presence of their starting material and air, they could trigger a reaction that assembles the quinazolinone structure cleanly and efficiently. The method requires no special equipment or oxygen-free environment, meaning reactions can be run on a standard lab bench, and it worked successfully across a wide range of starting materials.

The article was published open access and is freely available online through a publishing agreement between the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) and the American Chemical Society. Within two weeks of its online publication, Gray's research group's paper surpassed 1,000 views and was featured on JOC's list of most-read articles from the previous 30 days.

Gray has been a member of the W&L faculty since 2019. She serves on the Faculty Executive Committee and is a faculty co-adviser for the W&L Chemistry Club. She earned a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Furman University and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Princeton University. She also served as a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University.

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