Organic Chemistry Seminar: Professor Chi-Huey Wong, Scripps Research Institute
Organic Chemistry Seminar: Professor Chi-Huey Wong, Scripps Research Institute (Host: Chaitan Khosla)
**This seminar is available for virtual attendance.**
About the Seminar
"Biological Glycosylation: from understanding to innovation"
Glycosylation is a reaction used by Nature to modulate the structure and function of biomolecule; however, the mechanism of its role in biology and disease progression is not well understood. We have been interested in development of new tools and methods to study the role of glycosylation in protein folding, structure and function and in disease progression, with the ultimate goal of developing novel carbohydrate-based medicines. This lecture will present our recent development of innovative strategies for the synthesis and study of glycoconjugates, especially of universal vaccines against cancer and viral infection.
About the Speaker
Scripps Family Chair Professor, Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 N. Torrey Pines Rd. BCC 338, La Jolla, CA 92037. Tel: 1-858-784-2487. Email: wong [at] scripps.edu (wong[at]scripps[dot]edu). Website: www.scripps.edu/faculty/wong
Professor Wong received his B.S. (1970) and M.S. (1977) degrees from National Taiwan University, and Ph.D. (1982) in Chemistry (with George M. Whitesides) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then worked at Harvard University as a postdoctoral fellow (with George M. Whitesides) for another year, and became a faculty member at Texas A&M University (1983) where he was promoted to full professor in 1987. He then moved to the Scripps Research Institute in 1989 as Professor and Ernest W. Hahn Chair in Chemistry. From 2006 to 2016, he served as President of Academia Sinica. He is currently the Scripps Family Chair Professor in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute with a joint appointment as Distinguished Professor at the Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica.
Professor Wong received numerous honors for recognition of his accomplishments, including, for example, the Searle Scholar Award in Biomedical Sciences (1985), the Presidential Young Investigator Award in Chemistry, USA (1986), the Roy Whistler Award of the International Carbohydrate Organization (1994), the ACS Harrison Howe Award in Chemistry (1998), the ACS Claude S. Hudson Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry (1999), the International Enzyme Engineering Award (1999), the US Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award (2000), The ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (2005), Humboldt Research Award for Senior Scientists (2006), the FA Cotton Medal (2008), the Nikkei Asia Prize for Science, Technology and Innovation (2012), the ACS Arthur C. Cope Medal (2012), the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2014) and the Robert Robinson Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK (2015), Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry (2021).
He is a member of Academia Sinica (1994), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1996), and the US National Academy of Sciences (2002). He served as an Editorial Advisory Board member for the Journal of American Chemical Society and Angewandte Chemie, Chairman of the Executive Board of Editors of the Tetrahedron Publications (2006-2008), Head of the Frontier Research Program on Glycotechnology at RIKEN in Japan (1991-1999), and a board member of the US National Research Council on Chemical Sciences and Technology (2000-2003). In addition, he has received many honorary doctor degrees, given numerous plenary and named lectures, and served as advisor to many organizations, including a member of the scientific advisory board of the Max-Planck Institute (2000-2008), RIKEN Advisory Council (2010-16), and the Chief Science Advisor to the Taiwan Government (2006-2015).
His research interests are in the field of chemical biology and synthetic chemistry, with particular focus on the development of new methods and tools for the synthesis and study of complex carbohydrates and glycoproteins and associated glycosylation related to disease progression. He has published over 750 papers and holds more than 120 patents, and is a highly cited scientist with an h-index of 148.