Lecture
LED3 Lecture: Harnessing the Chemistry of Natural Product Biosynthesis
- Date
- Thursday 30 May 2024
- Time
- Location
-
Sylvius
Sylviusweg 72
2333 BE Leiden - Room
- 1.5.31
We are excited to announce that Professor Sarah O’Connor will give the next LED3 lecture on May 30, 2024. Sarah is the Director of the Department of Natural Product Biosynthesis at the Mack Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and an Honorary Professor of Chemistry at the Friedrich Schiller University (Jena, Germany).
Her research focuses on developing methods to elucidate the biosynthesis of natural products in plants and animals to understand chemical, biological and evolutionary processes that give rise to the complex chemistry present in nature. Of specific interest are natural products that have pharmaceutical or biotechnological value. Here, her group is developing biological platforms that enable the inexpensive and rapid production of these natural products. One well known example of her work is the elucidation of the biosynthetic pathway for monoterpene indole alkaloids (MIAs) in Catharanthus roseus, important anticancer drugs.
Sarah received her Ph.D. from MIT, carried out postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School, was a Professor at MIT, a Group Leader at the John Innes Centre before starting her current position at the MPI-ICE. During her career she received many awards and prices including the recently awarded Leibniz-Preis. She is an elected Fellow of the American Society of Pharmacognosy and the Royal Society.
After the talk, there will be a borrel outside the lecture hall.