Organic Chemistry Seminar: Professor Jeffrey Bode, ETH Zurich
About the Seminar
"Synthetic Organic Chemistry for Biologics"
Modern bioactive molecules are often perceived as being split into two tribes – small molecules and biologics. This distinction extents not only the size of the molecules – with biologics being large therapeutic proteins, antibodies, vaccines, and nucleic acids – but to their mode of production. Small molecules benefit from the power of organic synthesis to manipulate and tailor every atom in their structure, while biologics are largely limited to natural building blocks with few opportunities for modification and manipulation by organic reactions. Research in our group seeks to bring the flexibility and precision of synthetic organic chemistry to the construction of modified biologics. This work involves the development of exceptionally chemoselective assembly reactions, innovative protection and deprotection methods, and both chemical and chemoenzymatic ensembles for site-specific protein modification. Together, these technologies enable the preparation of unique biomolecule constructs including ubiquitin multimers, fully and semi-synthetic proteins, and emerging classes of therapeutic protein–protein conjugates. These atomically tailored biologics further provide a powerful platform for interrogating biological pathways including cytokine signaling and protein homeostasis.
About the Speaker
Jeffrey Bode studied Chemistry and Phylosophy at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He performed his graduate work at the California Institute of Technology and ETH Zürich with Prof. Erick M. Carreira, followed by Postdoctoral Studies at the Tokyo Institute of Technology with Prof. Keisuke Suzuki. In 2003, he joined the University of California, Santa Barbara as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and in 2007 moved to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia as an Associate Professor. In 2010, he returned to ETH Zürich as Professor of Synthetic Organic Chemistry. Since 2013, his group has also operated a satellite lab at the Institute of Transformative Biomolecules at Nagoya University in Japan.
Students and postdocs working in the Bode Group develop new methods for the construction of modified biological molecules and apply these collaborations on fundamental biology and the development of new therapeutic modalities. Parallel efforts include automation and multiplexing of small molecule and biomolecule synthesis and analysis. The basic research and scientific insights from the Bode Group has led to the formation of three ETH spinoff companies – Synple Chem, Bright Peak Therapeutics, and Serac Biosciences.
Jeffrey is an Executive Editor of Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis. His research and teaching have been recognized by numerous awards including the Mukaiyama Award and the E. J. Corey Award. He is the co-founder and Director of Studies for the new Biochemistry and Chemical Biology (BCB) Curriculum at ETH Zürich and a member of the Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Host: Justin Du Bois
This seminar is supported by the William S. Johnson endowment honoring this esteemed chemist, who made significant contributions in the areas of synthetic and bioorganic chemistry.