Dr. Otto Phanstiel is an active educator at the College of Medicine and has been a professor at UCF since 1995. He teaches primarily in the core course of the Biomedical Sciences PhD program and as a small-group discussion leader in Human Body 1 module in the medical school.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities at the College of Medicine, Dr. Phanstiel conducts funded research in medicinal chemistry. His research lab uses organic synthesis and cell based screens to develop new therapies to fight cancer and infectious diseases.

New research students will learn how to conduct multi-step organic syntheses of novel drug candidates and will assist in the biological evaluation of their own compounds.