The Department of Chemistry has recently greatly enhanced its organic and chemical biology research areas with four new faculty. At the senior ranks, Drs. Peter Beal and Sheila David joined us at the beginning of 2007, and Drs. Jared Shaw and Annaliese Franz will start as Assistant Professors July 1, 2007.
Peter A. Beal carried out graduate research in Peter Dervan’s laboratory at Caltech, receiving his Ph.D. in 1994. He was an NIH postdoctoral fellow with Stuart Schreiber at Harvard University from '94-'96. In 1996, Beal began his independent research career in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Utah where he rose to the rank of full professor. During his time in Utah, Beal was recognized for his efforts in teaching and research with awards including an NIH First Award and a Camille Dreyfus Teacher/Scholar Award. The Beal laboratory of chemical biology at UC Davis uses synthetic chemistry and synthetic biology to study and control ribonucleic acids (RNAs). Work carried out in the Beal lab is advancing our understanding of essential basic science principles of RNA structure and recognition and is providing a platform for the development of new medicines targeting RNA or RNA-binding proteins. New RNA molecules are created by chemical synthesis with nucleoside analogs, introducing novel anddesirable features. In addition, new small molecules are synthesized that are capable of perturbing natural RNA function or the function of RNA-modifying enzymes. Finally, directed evolution carried out in the Beal lab generates new RNA structures and new RNA-modifying enzymes with valuable properties. These approaches have been applied to the study of RNA-editing adenosine deaminases, RNA interference by short interfering RNAs (siRNAs), the RNA-dependent protein kinase (PKR), and RNA-targeted threading intercalators.
Sheila David received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota with Prof. Larry Que and was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Caltech with Prof. Jackie Barton. She began as an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and then moved to the University of Utah where she rose through the ranks to Full Professor. She has been the recipient of a Beckman Young Investigator Award and was an A.P. Sloan Fellow. She is excited to join the faculty at UCD to further elaborate her program that focuses on the Chemical Biology of DNA Repair and Cancer. Specifically, her laboratory uses a combination of chemical biology, bioorganic and bioinorganic approaches to define the molecular features of recognition and repair of DNA damage by base excision repair glycosylases. The signature project in the laboratory has focused on the unusual iron-sulfur cluster containing MutY/MYH glycosylases that remove adenine from 8-oxoguanine: adenine mismatches. Approaches developed to elucidate factors influencing the recognition of DNA damage and base excision were an important component that positioned the David laboratory to participate in making the first direct link between inherited defects in the human MutY homologue (MUTYH) and colorectal cancer. Present work focuses on elaborating the role of MUTYH and related glycosylase enzymes in prevention of carcinogenesis and developing new chemical biology approaches for examining and exploiting DNA repair enzymes in cells. In addition, the laboratory continues to explore the roles of the iron-sulfur cluster in MutY and related enzymes in recognition of DNA damage.
Jared Shaw got his B.S. degree at UC Berkeley and his Ph.D. at UC Irvine, before moving to Harvard for a postdoc and a stint as an institute fellow at the Broad Institute. His current research interests include synthetic methodology, the study of natural products, and developing new tools for chemical biology.
Annaliese Franz received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from UC-Irvine under the supervision of Keith Woerpel and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University with Stuart Schreiber. Professor Franz is excited to join the faculty at UC-Davis to build her research program combining organic chemistry and chemical biology. Her research aims to develop new chemical reactions and catalysts for the synthesis of chiral organic molecules and the synthetic modification of proteins, with a specific focus on understanding the mechanisms of these reactions and the factors involved in protein surface recognition.