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Symposium Speakers

Keynote Speaker

Suzanne Walker is a professor at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Professor Walker's laboratory combines organic synthesis and biophysical methods with molecular biology to gather information about essential bacterial enzymes and pathways, and to dissect the mechanisms of action of antibacterial agents. The lab is also interested in the chemistry and biology of glycosyltransferases.

Thomas C. Brunold, Ph.D.

Thomas Brunold is a professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Chemistry. His research is aimed at unraveling metalloenzyme and cofactor structure/function relationships through combined experimental and computational studies of key enzymatic states and synthetic inorganic model complexes. Experimental techniques used in his studies include electronic absorption, circular dichroism, magnetic circular dichroism, resonance Raman, and electron paramagnetic resonance.

Colin R. Campbell, Ph.D.

Colin Campbell is a professor at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Pharmacology. The focus of Dr. Campbell's research is to gain a greater understanding of molecular genetic mechanisms of DNA repair and recombination in mammalian cancer cells. Their goal is to identify genes that play important roles in this process, and to determine how their protein products catalyze DNA repair in these cells.

Kurt Deshayes, Ph.D.

Kurt Deshayes is a senior scientist in the Protein Engineering Department at Genentech Inc. His group has been investigating how manipulating protein-protein interactions modulates cellular signaling. Recently, he has been involved in studies of proteins that inhibit programmed cell death (apoptosis) in cancer cells, and how these proteins help provide resistance to conventional treatments. His long term goal is the development of novel therapeutics that target the apoptosis pathway.

Craig Forsyth, Ph.D.

Craig Forsyth is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on the design, total synthesis, and evaluation of complex biologically active compounds. This includes natural products and their non-natural designed analogs which are used to probe mechanism and mode of action, as well as structure activity relationships. Structurally diverse naturally occurring inhibitors of protein serine / threonine phosphatases, as well as rare anti-cancer natural products serve as leads for elucidating novel mechanisms for modulation of the cell cycle.

Jon S. Thorson, Ph.D.

Jon Thorson is a professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison in the School of Pharmacy. In his laboratory they focus not upon natural products as the objective, but upon the natural catalysts (enzymes) that construct therapeutically useful metabolites. Through detailed mechanistic understanding of the enzymes involved in biosynthetic pathways and through the use of a wide range of tools, from genetics to synthetic organic chemistry, they strive to engineer novel and highly effective therapeutic agents via combinatorial biosynthesis, biocatalysis and chemoselective ligation strategies.

For additional information please contact Brandie Kovaleski, kovaleski@chem.umn.edu

	Symposium Speakers
Suzanne Walker, Ph.D.	Keynote Speaker Suzanne Walker is a professor at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Professor Walker's laboratory combines organic synthesis and biophysical methods with molecular biology to gather information about essential bacterial enzymes and pathways, and to dissect the mechanisms of action of antibacterial agents. The lab is also interested in the chemistry and biology of glycosyltransferases.
Thomas C. Brunold, Ph.D.	Thomas Brunold is a professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Chemistry. His research is aimed at unraveling metalloenzyme and cofactor structure/function relationships through combined experimental and computational studies of key enzymatic states and synthetic inorganic model complexes. Experimental techniques used in his studies include electronic absorption, circular dichroism, magnetic circular dichroism, resonance Raman, and electron paramagnetic resonance.
Colin R. Campbell, Ph.D.	Colin Campbell is a professor at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Pharmacology. The focus of Dr. Campbell's research is to gain a greater understanding of molecular genetic mechanisms of DNA repair and recombination in mammalian cancer cells. Their goal is to identify genes that play important roles in this process, and to determine how their protein products catalyze DNA repair in these cells.
Kurt Deshayes, Ph.D.	Kurt Deshayes is a senior scientist in the Protein Engineering Department at Genentech Inc. His group has been investigating how manipulating protein-protein interactions modulates cellular signaling. Recently, he has been involved in studies of proteins that inhibit programmed cell death (apoptosis) in cancer cells, and how these proteins help provide resistance to conventional treatments. His long term goal is the development of novel therapeutics that target the apoptosis pathway.
Craig Forsyth, Ph.D.	Craig Forsyth is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on the design, total synthesis, and evaluation of complex biologically active compounds. This includes natural products and their non-natural designed analogs which are used to probe mechanism and mode of action, as well as structure activity relationships. Structurally diverse naturally occurring inhibitors of protein serine / threonine phosphatases, as well as rare anti-cancer natural products serve as leads for elucidating novel mechanisms for modulation of the cell cycle.
Jon S. Thorson, Ph.D.	Jon Thorson is a professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison in the School of Pharmacy. In his laboratory they focus not upon natural products as the objective, but upon the natural catalysts (enzymes) that construct therapeutically useful metabolites. Through detailed mechanistic understanding of the enzymes involved in biosynthetic pathways and through the use of a wide range of tools, from genetics to synthetic organic chemistry, they strive to engineer novel and highly effective therapeutic agents via combinatorial biosynthesis, biocatalysis and chemoselective ligation strategies.