Seminars This Week

Today is the day that I'm proud to be hosting Scott Snyder from Columbia University for his seminar at noon titled "Lessons in Chemoselectivity: Total Synthesis of Polyphenolic Natural Products" in 7-135 Weaver-Densford Hall. Scott and I overlapped at Scripps for a couple years, so it will be great to hear about the success of his independent research program at Columbia.

Alison Frontier from the University of Rochester will then be on campus this Wednesday and Thursday for the latest Abbott Workshop Series in Synthetic Organic and Medicinal Chemistry hosted by the Department of Chemistry. Her seminar, "New Twists in Nazarov Cyclization Chemistry," will be on Wednesday at 4:15 pm in 331 Smith Hall. The workshop discussion will be held on Thursday, July 14 at 10:00 am in 114 Science Teaching & Student Services. This will be followed by a pizza lunch, and the Fecik group meets with Alison from 1:30-2:15 pm.

Seminars Next Week

There are three seminars of interest taking place next week. On Monday, June 27, Dr. Henry Wong will present his talk "Adnectins: A Novel Class of Targeted Protein Therapeutic" in 7-135 Weaver-Densford Hall at 11:00. Dr. Wong is a candidate for the Pharmacologist position in ITDD.

As part of the Medicinal Chemistry Seminar Series, Kathryn Nelson, a third-year graduate student in Courtney Aldrich's lab, will present her research seminar titled "Total Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of the Siderophore Acinetobactin and the Structurally Related Natural Product (+)-Transvalencin Z" on Tuesday, June 28 in 7-135 Weaver-Densford Hall at 11:30. Lunch will be provided, but you will need to bring your own drink.


Lastly, the Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology (MICaB) program will be hosting Dr. Bill Phelps as part of their Career Development Seminar Series. Bill is a Program Director at the American Cancer Society (ACS), and he leads the ACS study section on Cancer Drug Discovery on which I have served. He will be speaking at 12:00 noon on Thursday, June 30 in 450 MCRB, and the title of his talk is "Perspectives on Cancer Research from a Career Path in Academia, Government, Industry and a Private Foundation" and "How The ACS Supports Cancer Research." Bill is a Minnesota alumnus and he received his Ph.D. in Microbiology in 1985 at Minnesota. Prior to his appointment at ACS in 2001, he was a postdoc at NCI and a scientist at Burroughs-Wellcome/GlaxoWellcome/GlaxoSmithKline for several years. Bill's a great person, and he will provide a fascinating insight to cancer research and grant funding. Lunch will be provided, but you must RSVP for lunch here by Wednesday, June 29 at noon.

Seminars Next Week

It's great that seminars continue here throughout the summer, and three have been announced for next week. On Monday, June 20 Lih-Wen Deng from the National University of Singapore we present "Function of Mixed Lineage Leukaemia 5 in Cell Cycle Regulation" as part of the Chemical Biology Colloquium series. The talk will in 3-100 Mayo Auditorium at 12:15 pm, and pizza and beverages will be served.

The summer Medicinal Chemistry seminar series will kick off on Tuesday, June 21 with a graduate student presentation from Amit Gangar (Wagner lab) at 11:30 am in 7-135 Weaver–Densford Hall. Amit's talk is titled "Design and Development of Bispecific Chemically Self-Assembled Nanostructures for Anti-Cancer Drug Delivery." Lunch will be provided, but BYOB (bring your own beverage).


A special seminar will be given on Wednesday, June 22 at 9 am in 7-135 Weaver–Densford Hall by Dr. Krishnan Subbiah titled "Targeted Oncology Therapeutics: In Vivo Pharmacology." Dr. Subbiah is a candidate for the Pharmacologist position in the Institute for Therapeutics Discovery and Development.

It will be busy seminar week, but I'll see everyone there!

Pharma Strategy Clinic Seminar: Pharmaceutical Innovation at a Crossroads with Kenneth Kaitin

As part of the Pharma Strategy Clinic Seminar Series sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR), Professor Kenneth Kaitin from Tufts University will present a seminar titled "Pharmaceutical Innovation at a Crossroads: The New Face of Pharma R&D" on Wednesday, June 8 at 11:30 am in 2-530 Moos Tower. Ken is widely recognized for his expertise in the landscape of drug development, and his talk will focus on academic-industrial drug discovery partnerships. A light lunch will be served before the seminar, and no RSVP is required. More information about Ken can be at found at the OVPR Research News Online website.

Summer Seminar Scheduled Announced, Scott Synder (Columbia University) Confirmed

The Department of Medicinal Chemistry released its Summer 2011 seminar program today, which runs from June 21 to August 2. The summer talks are reserved for third year graduate students to present their research seminar. There was one open slot for an external speaker, and I'm pleased to be hosting Assistant Professor Scott Snyder from Columbia University on Tuesday, July 12. Scott is a friend since the time we overlapped at Scripps where he received his Ph.D. with K.C. Nicolaou in 2004. He's off to a fantastic start in his independent career at Columbia, which he began in 2006. Scott gave a great, inspiring talk at the Natural Products Gordon Conference a couple years ago, so this will be a super seminar. The title of Scott's seminar is "Lessons in Chemoselectivity: Total Synthesis of Polyphenolic Natural Products."

Scott Snyder

Here's the entire summer seminar schedule. All talks are in 7-135 WDH; lunch will be served at 11:30 (bring your own drinks), and the seminars begin at noon.


June 21 - Amit Gangar (Wagner lab): Design and Development of Bispecific Chemically Self-Assembled Nanostructures for Anti-Cancer Drug Delivery


June 28 - Kathryn Nelson (Aldrich lab): Total Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of the Siderophore Acinetobactin and the Structurally Related Natural Product (+)-Transvalencin Z


July 5 - Adwait Ranade (Georg lab): Syntheses of a 2,3-Dihydropyridone Library and Epothilone Photoaffinity Probes


July 12 - Scott Snyder (Columbia University): Lesson in Chemoselectivity: Total Synthesis of Polyphenolic Natural Products


July 19 - Srikanth Kotapati (Tretyakova lab): Urinary Biomarkers of Human Exposure to 1,3-Butadiene (BD) and Influence of BD–DNA


July 26 - Xia Zhang (Amin lab): Experimental and Computational Methods for Identification of Novel Fungal Histone Acetyltransferase Rtt109 Inhibitors


August 2 - Martin Phillips (Peterson lab): The Chemistry of Bioactivated Electrophilic Intermediates of Furan