Chemical Biology Seminar: Professor Jeffrey Martell, University of Wisconsin–Madison
About the Seminar
Merging Abiotic and Biological Catalysis for Sustainable Synthesis and Chemical Biology
My group develops catalysts that merge the benefits of enzymes and abiotic chemistry. In one research area, we are using DNA as a nano-scaffold to accelerate the discovery and enhance the activity of abiotic catalyst systems. I will describe a platform to rapidly evaluate up to a million DNA nano-catalysts using DNA barcoding and combinatorial synthesis, thus mimicking the process of directed evolution in identifying highly active abiotic catalyst systems. In our second research area, we are developing ultrahigh-throughput chemogenetic directed evolution platforms to enhance the activity of natural enzymes in abiotic contexts. I will describe yeast display platforms to discover enzyme mutants with improved activity for diverse applications, including recycling of synthetic plastics and proteomic mapping in living cells.
About the Speaker
Jeff was an undergraduate at Northwestern, where he did research in the group of Rick Silverman on organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and enzymology. Jeff did his PhD in Chemistry at MIT in the group of Alice Ting, where he used protein engineering and directed evolution to create new tools for studying cell biology. Inspired by the idea of creating protein-mimicking cavities in synthetic materials, he did postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley in the group of Jeff Long, where he studied diamine-appended metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) for cooperative CO2 capture and developed a chiral MOF for enantioselective recognition. At UW-Madison, Jeff and his team are pursuing interdisciplinary research on developing new catalysts that merge the benefits of enzymes and synthetic chemistry.