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SUMMARY:Cationic-Aromatic Scaffolds for the Selective Chemical Manipulation
  of Biological Matter
LOCATION:Chemistry A101
TZID:America/Denver
DTSTART:20220411T160000
UID:2026-04-27-10-09-35@natsci.colostate.edu
DTSTAMP:20260427T100935
Description:About the Seminar\nCovalent protein modification chemistries ha
 ve become an essential component to a wide array of fields ranging from dr
 ug discovery and chemical biology to materials chemistry.  As a result\, 
   the development of new bioconjugation chemistries with enhanced sophis
 tication and new capabilities serve to not only enable access to protein c
 onjugates with new functional properties\, but can also provide unique len
 ses through which to probe biological structure and processes directly in 
 situ.  This seminar will discuss recent efforts by our group to develop c
 hemical transformations that covalently modify biological matter via unusu
 al or underexplored mechanistic pathways.  We have identified three catio
 nic\, aromatic scaffolds that allow us to invoke three distinct mechanisti
 c paradigms in protein modification: (1) N-substituted pyridinium salts fo
 r photo-induced electron transfer-driven tryptophan modification  (2) cat
 ionic\, aromatic sulfonate esters for ultra-rapid\, radical photo de-cagin
 g of sulfonyl radicals and (3) cationic\, aromatic acyl donors  for selec
 tive protein acylation driven by non-covalent interactions.  By invoking 
 these unusual reaction mechanisms\, we are able to access chemical modific
 ations on traditionally non-reactive biological moieties with rapid kineti
 cs and under biologically compatible conditions.  This has enabled us to 
 translate our chemistry directly from the flask to in situ for use as chem
 ical probes to interrogate biomolecular structures in their native environ
 ment.\n\nAbout the Speaker\n\nMichael grew up in Salisbury\, on the easter
 n shore of Maryland\, and received his undergraduate degree from Salisbury
  University in 2006.  There\, he was an undergraduate researcher in Profe
 ssor Elizabeth Papish’s group where he worked on the synthesis of small 
 molecule-metal complexes designed to mimic metalloenzyme active sites.  H
 e then moved to the University of Delaware\, where he pursued his Ph.D. i
 n Professor Joseph Fox\\'s laboratory.  His research in the Fox group fo
 cused on the development of new synthetic methods\, the total synthesis of
  natural products\, and the development of bio-orthogonal chemistry.  Aft
 er receiving his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 2013\, he moved to the Unit
 ed Kingdom to take up a post-doctoral position in the laboratory of Profes
 sor Matthew Gaunt at the University of Cambridge\, where he was awarded a 
 Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2014.  His research at Cambridge p
 rimarily focused on the development of a non-classical reactive platform f
 or the selective chemical modification of proteins.  In August of 2017\, 
 Michael moved back across the pond to take up his position in the Chemist
 ry Department at the University of Wyoming.  Michael’s research program
  is underpinned by an interest in developing organic transformations for u
 se at the chemistry-biology interface. During his time at Wyoming\, Micha
 el has received an NSF CAREER award\, a Thieme Chemistry Journals award\, 
 and an NIH outstanding investigator award. 4:00 pm
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