Schepartz: Chemical Biologists Seeking Solutions Through Molecular Manipulation

(PhysOrg.com) -- Alanna Schepartz knows that some of the most interesting science happening today is being done at the intersection of different disciplines.

The Milton Harris '29 PhD Professor of Chemistry, who is also a professor in the Department of Molecular Cellular & Developmental Biology, has been charged with heading the advisory committee that is overseeing the development of a new institute at the West Campus focused on chemical biology, which will foster innovation at the intersection of a host of scientific disciplines.

As part of her role as chair of the committee, Schepartz has organized a special lecture series on chemical biology, bringing in scientists from around the world whose research is at the frontier of chemical biology and is uniquely suited for the multidisciplinary environment the committee hopes to craft at the West Campus.

In the following Q&A with Schepartz, she talks about the science of chemical biology and the new West Campus institute that will be devoted to the field.

Q: What is chemical biology?

A: Chemical biology encompasses two very different types of experimentation — each with unique motivations and impact, and each requiring specialized training. In one case, chemical biology represents the design and synthesis of new molecules whose structures and/or functions are suited uniquely to address a problem in biology or medicine that is difficult to tackle using more traditional approaches. The antibody-recruiting small molecules developed by my colleague David Spiegel represent a wonderful new example of this type of chemical biology research.

But chemical biology also represents the development of new chemistry — new reactions, new materials, new processes, new technologies — in a manner that is inspired by the natural world. The highly selective (and extremely useful) peptide catalysts developed by my colleague Scott Miller would fall into this category.

Q: What are the different disciplines and applications involved in chemical biology?

A: There are so many; indeed, that is the primary reason why chemical biology demands interdisciplinary training and a vibrant interdisciplinary environment. All chemical biology students must feel at home with making molecules, whether those molecules look like natural products, peptides, or hybrids in between. And they all must feel at home with standard techniques of molecular and cell biology and usually biophysics. After that, the disciplines are guided — as they should be — by the scientific questions being addressed.

Q: What is your role as chair of the advisory committee that is overseeing the development of the Institute for Chemical Diversity, Evolution and Function at the West Campus?

A: My role is to gather information from faculty across the university — Science Hill, the School of Medicine, and the School of Engineering & Applied Science — to ensure that we recruit to the West Campus only those individuals who are the very, very best and also are uniquely suited because of their research to benefit from the multi-disciplinary environment that makes the West Campus special. Our first recruit — Jonathan Ellman, who came here from UC Berkeley — is a perfect example.

Q: What sorts of research projects will faculty at the new institute work on?

A: The committee has identified three grand, interdisciplinary challenges that will guide our selection of faculty. The first is the challenge to control and exploit what I call "higher-order interactions" - the design of molecules that assemble transiently or stably into functional, useful materials or circuits or catalysts. The second is to expand the central dogma to recognize the role of small molecules in regulating the functions of DNA, RNA and protein; this effort is tied closely with efforts in systems biology, which is also well represented at the West Campus. The final area is synthetic biology, which is concerned with programming cells and organisms with new functions. This area interfaces beautifully with the microbial diversity effort at the West Campus.

Q: Why is it important for Yale to get involved in this field?

A: It's important because of the potential the field holds for discoveries that impact medicine, engineering, as well as basic science.

Provided by Yale University