School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
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Our Science
A majority of antibiotics and drugs that we use in the clinic are derived or inspired from small organic molecules called Natural Products that are produced by living organisms such as bacteria, fungi, and plants. Natural Products are at the forefront of fighting the global epidemic of antibiotic resistant pathogens, and keeping the inventory of clinically applicable pharmaceuticals stocked up. Some Natural Products are also potent human toxins and pollutants, and we need to understand how these toxins are produced to minimize our and the environmental exposure to them.
We as biochemists ask some simple questions- how and why are Natural Products produced in Nature, what we can learn from Natural Product biosynthetic processes, and how we can exploit Nature's synthetic capabilities for interesting applications? Find out more about our Science, browse the Publications, and meet The Team.
We as biochemists ask some simple questions- how and why are Natural Products produced in Nature, what we can learn from Natural Product biosynthetic processes, and how we can exploit Nature's synthetic capabilities for interesting applications? Find out more about our Science, browse the Publications, and meet The Team.
Broadly, we are interested in questions involving (meta)genomics, biochemistry, structural and mechanistic enzymology, mass spectrometry, analytical chemistry, and how natural product chemistry dictates biology.
News
Vinayak Agarwal
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Vinny got his PhD from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with Satish Nair working on the structures and biochemistry of enzymes that make and break natural products. He then moved to University of California, San Diego to work with Brad Moore where he explored marine halogenation biochemistry. He was the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation fellow from 2014-2106, and is currently funded by a NIH R00 award, the Sloan Foundation, and the Petit Institute.
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