Chemical biology symposium 2024

Natalie Ahn is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Colorado at Boulder.  She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied mechanistic enzymology in the lab of Judith Klinman. She then carried out postdoctoral studies at the University of Washington with Edwin Krebs, where she discovered MAP kinase kinases (aka MKKs or MEKs), key regulators of the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase pathway, which are important targets for anti-cancer therapies. Her laboratory investigates new mechanisms underlying the regulation and function of cell signaling, by integrating biochemical, biophysical, and cellular strategies with biomolecular analysis by mass spectrometry.  She elucidated enzymatic and cellular mechanisms underlying cell signaling events and pioneered the use of functional proteomics and hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry for signal transduction research. Research projects include identification of cellular targets downstream of oncogenic B-Raf/MAPK pathways in cancer, and biophysical studies combining hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry with NMR to investigate how MAP kinases are regulated at the level of conformational mobility and dynamics. Dr. Ahn was appointed as an HHMI Investigator from 1994-2014, has served as President of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the U.S. Human Proteome Organization, and is a member of the American Association of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.

Tom Brown is Professor of Nucleic Acid Chemistry at Oxford University. He works on applications of nucleic acids in biology and medicine (diagnostics and therapeutics). He is co-inventor of technologies for genetic analysis and is co-founder of three Biotech companies: Oswel (custom oligonucleotide synthesis) ATDBio (synthesis of modified oligonucleotides) and Primer Design (DNA-based diagnostics). His current interests are in the areas of gene editing, chemical modification of mRNA, and developing new artificial DNA backbones to improve the properties of therapeutic oligonucleotides. He has published over 450 research papers and patents in the nucleic acid field.
 
Awards include the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Josef Loschmidt prize, the Royal Society of Chemistry prizes for Nucleic Acid Chemistry and for Interdisciplinary Research, and the RSC Khorana Prize for work at the chemistry and life science interface. Tom was Chemistry World entrepreneur of the year in 2014 and BBSRC Innovator of the Year in 2016.

Morten Meldal is a Danish chemist and professor at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, alongside Barry Sharpless and Carolyn Bartozzi, for the groundbreaking development of ‘Click chemistry and biorthogonal chemistry’.  He also received the 2009 American Chemical Society Ralph F. Hirschmann Award in peptide chemistry, as well as the 2011 Vincent du Vigneaud Award of the American Peptide Society.
Meldal obtained his MSc in chemical engineering and PhD, under the supervision of Klaus Bock, from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Meldal’s PhD work focused on synthesis of carbohydrates, and after working as a postdoctoral fellow in organic chemistry at Cambridge University, he was professor and manager of a research synthesis group at Carlsberg Research Laboratory. In 2011, Meldal became professor at the Department of Chemistry at University of Copenhagen, where he headed the CECB research center within the field of chemical biology, with focus on peptide and combinatorial chemistry. Meldal co-founded three companies, Combio, Versamatrix, and Betamab Therapeutics ApS, which utilized the SPOCC and CECB platforms in biotechnological and pharmacological research and development.
Throughout Meldal’s career, his research has had innovative influences on methods in peptide and combinatorial chemistry. His involvement in method development of solid-phase and combinatorial peptide synthesis, as well as development of the CuAAc Click reaction, have become mainstream methods for application in bioorganic and organic synthesis.