Upcoming Seminar
The Chemical Logic of Natural Product Biosynthesis
Dr. Yi Tang, UCLA
December 1, 2021
4:00pm in HSCI-102
Enzymes from natural product biosynthetic pathways catalyze the biosynthesis of complex molecules. While the core enzymes prepare the carbon backbones of natural products, enzymes involved in precursor biosynthesis and tailoring steps are particularly attractive as potential biocatalysts. These enzymes include group transferases, oxidative enzymes and pericyclases, etc. Many of the observed regio-, stereo-, and peri-selective reactions are synthetically challenging or without synthetic parallels. In this presentation, I will present enzymes discovery efforts in my laboratory in recent years, with an emphasis on enzymes that catalyze pericyclic reactions and use pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) as cofactor. I will present the sources of discovery through genome mining, characterization and application of the these enzymes.
Seminars are held on Wednesdays at 4:00pm. All are invited to attend.
For seminars held via Zoom, faculty, staff, alumni, and students of the department will automatically receive a weekly invitation via email. All others may email the Seminar Coordinator for invitation.
Schedule for Fall 2021
| Date | Title | Speaker and Affiliation |
|---|---|---|
| September 1 | Anatomy of chemical reactions: Catalytic oxidation of carbon monoxide | Dr. Jerry LaRue, Chapman University |
| September 8 | Enzymatic Oxidative Coupling Reactions to Make Protein Therapeutics | Dr. Matthew Francis, UC Berkeley |
| September 15 | Examining the morphology and chemical reactivity of 2D and 3D carbon structures | Dr. Michael Groves, CSU Fullerton |
| September 29 | Connecting DNA Shape with CRISPR Target Discrimination: Mechanistic Insights Informing Applications | Dr. Peter Qin, USC |
| October 6 | Reaction Networks and the Metric Structure of Chemical Space(s) | Dr. Dmitrij Rappoport, UC Irvine |
| October 13 | Strange things happen at the nanoscale: Spectroscopy, entropy and quantum effects at solid/liquid interfaces | Dr. Tod Pascal, UC San Diego |
| October 20 | Small molecule electrocatalysis and interfacial charge speciation | Dr. Hadi Tavassol, CSU Long Beach |
| October 27 | Actin in self-defense: How the cytoskeleton protects neurons during cerebral ischemia and energy stress | Dr. Shelley Halpain, UC San Diego |
| November 10 | A Tale of DNA Modifications: Chemistry, Biology, and Applications | Dr. Linlin Zhao, UC Riverside |
| November 17 | The Role of Electric Fields and Aqueous Solvation for Catalyst Design / From photons to fuels by computation: Modeling electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 on copper electrodes | Drs. Teresa Head-Gordon and Martin Head-Gordon, UC Berkeley |
| December 1 | The Chemical Logic of Natural Product Biosynthesis | Dr. Yi Tang, UCLA |
| December 8 | TBD | David Elsenberg, UCLA |
Previous Seminars
The following are Seminars from previous semesters.
Spring 2021
| Date | Title | Speaker and Affiliation |
|---|---|---|
| April 28 | Development of multitarget inhibitors for the treatment of pain: design, synthesis, biological evaluation and molecular modeling studies |
Dr. Stevan Pecic, CSU Fullerton |
| April 21 | Earth-Abundant Metal Catalysis: Mechanisms of CC and C-Heteroatom Bond Forming Reactions |
Dr. Xiaotai Wang, University of Colorado, Denver |
| April 14 | Proteins and Drugs Controlling Cancer Cell Division |
Dr. Seth Rubin, US Santa Cruz |
| April 7 | The Bioinorganic Chemistry of the Simple Nitrogen Oxides (NOx): Not So Simple |
Dr. George Richter- Addo, University of Oklahoma |
| March 24 | The Fifth Element in Disguise | Dr. Shiyuan Liu, Boston College |
| March 17 | Single-Molecule Imaging of the Electrochemical Interface |
Dr. Bo Zhang, University of Washington |
| March 10 | Recombinant protein-polymers in medicine and biology |
Dr. Andrew MacKay, USC |
| February 17 | Uncovering the proteomes and transcriptomes of cellular protrusions using Laser capture Microdissection |
Dr. Karine Gousset, CSU Fresno |
| February 10 | Fast and Accurate Quantum Chemistry Simulation for molecular design and discovery |
Dr. Fang Liu, Emory University |
| February 3 | Cheminformatics: Using SWIF's to Identify Binding Modes in Non-Covalent Complexes | Dr. Eric Sorin, CSU Long Beach |
| February 3 | Stepping into Light: Developing a General Photo- Initiated Hydroacylation of Alkenes |
Dr. Paul Buonora, CSU Long Beach |
Spring 2020
Note: most of the Spring 2020 seminars were cancelled due to COVID-19.
| Date | Title | Speaker and Affiliation |
|---|---|---|
| March 11, 2020 | From Photooxidation to Photobasicity: Adventures Exploring Photochemistry with Undergrads | Dr. Andrew Petit, CSU Fullerton |
| March 4, 2020 | Oxylipins and HDL, an explanation for pro- and anti-inflammatory activities | Dr. Gregory Shearer, Penn State |
| February 26, 2020 | Epitope-Targeting Cyclic Peptides as Chemical Biology Tools | Dr. Min Xue, UC Riverside |
| February 19, 2020 | Twists and turns along the path of reactivity-driven methodology development | Dr. Hosea Nelson, UCLA |