Organic Chemistry Seminar: Professor Steven Townsend, Vanderbilt University
Organic Chemistry Seminar: Professor Steven Townsend, Vanderbilt University (Host: Lynette Cegelski)
About the Seminar
"Enabling Technologies for Chemistry Focused Glycoscience"
Our discussion will focus on applications of human milk oligosaccharides to problems in human health and wellness and a bioorganic investigation of polyphenolic natural products.
About the Speaker
Steve was raised on the lower east side of Detroit Michigan and completed a B.S. with honors in chemistry from Oakland University in 2005. His thesis work, under the direction of Prof. Amanda Bryant-Friedrich, focused on the synthesis of DNA radical precursors. Next, Steve moved on to Vanderbilt University where he completed a PhD in organic chemistry under the mentorship of Prof. Gary Sulikowski in 2010. Steve’s project focused on an application of the [2+2] photocycloaddition reaction toward the synthesis of Bielschowskysin. After his graduate education, Steve completed a postdoctoral research tour with Prof. Sam Danishefsky in his labs at the Sloan-Kettering Institute and Columbia University from 2011-2014. At MSK, Steve focused on the synthesis of Erythropoietin, PTHrP, and pentavalent cancer vaccine candidates. In the Columbia labs, Steve focused on Diels-Alder cycloaddition methodology. Since 2014, Steve and his team at Vanderbilt have focused on using thought provoking synthetic carbohydrate chemistry to address interesting problems in biology.
Photo courtesy of Susan Urmy.