Student Hosted Colloquium

Thursday, May 17th
Professor Greg Verdine
"Chemical Crosslinking as a Window into Biologic Function"

4:15pm - 5:15pm
Braun Lecture Hall
S.G.Mudd Chemistry Building
Stanford University




This seminar is free and open to the public. All Stanford University Chemistry students are encouraged to attend this special event.

About the seminar:
Our lab is working toward a complete elucidation of the means by which DNA repair proteins locate and excise extremely rare sites of damage in the genome. In a parallel effort we are developing new discovery platforms for ligands and drugs that modulate the function of so-called "undruggable" targets. Though these two programs are essentially non-overlapping in terms of biologic input and output, they share common chemical roots in employing synthetic crosslinking as a key element of the experimental strategy. Progress on these fronts will be reviewed.

About Verdine:
Professor Gregory L. Verdine’s research interests lie in the emerging area of chemical biology. He and his co-workers study biologic processes underlying control of gene expression and preservation of genomic integrity. He has made major contributions to the understanding of DNA damage recognition and repair by base-excision DNA repair enzymes. He has also pioneered new and powerful approaches for the discovery of unconventional bioactive ligands for receptors that have proven difficult to target with conventional drugs. Professor Verdine received his B.S. degree in 1982 from St. Joseph’s University and his Ph.D. in 1986 from Columbia University (under Koji Nakanishi and Maria Tomasz). Following an NIH postdoctoral fellowship with Chris Walsh at M.I.T. and Harvard Medical School, he joined the Harvard University Department of Chemistry in 1988. Verdine was promoted to Full Professor in 1994 and was also named Harvard College Professor in 2000. In 2002, he was named the Erving Professor of Chemistry, the longest-established endowed professorship at Harvard. He is a Full Member of the Harvard Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and co-directs two graduate programs, the University-wide Graduate Program in Chemical Biology (co-founded with Jon Clardy) and the Graduate Program in Molecular, Cellular and Chemical Biology. Together with Stanley J. Korsmeyer, Verdine co-founded the Harvard/Dana-Farber Program in Cancer Chemical Biology and was named its first Executive Director; he also serves as the Executive Director of the Dana-Farber Chemical Biology Initiative. He has published more than 150 original research articles. Verdine has received numerous awards and honors, including the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, the Sloan Fellowship, the Searle Scholar Award, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, the Nucleic Acids Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Cruikshank Award of the Gordon Research Conferences, and the Nobel Laureate Signature Award of the American Chemical Society (with Anirban Banerjee). He currently serves as Founder and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Boards of Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Aileron Therapeutics, and Gloucester Pharmaceuticals, and is a Special Advisor to the Texas Pacific Group.

Questions
Please contact Patricia Dwyer at 650-723-4770.