School of Humanities and Sciences
Showing 301-378 of 378 Results
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Alice Ting
Professor of Genetics, of Biology and, by courtesy, of Chemistry
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe develop chemogenetic and optogenetic technologies for probing and manipulating protein networks, cellular RNA, and the function of mitochondria and the mammalian brain. Our technologies draw from protein engineering, directed evolution, chemical biology, organic synthesis, high-resolution microscopy, genetics, and computational design.
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Barry Trost
Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Emeritus
BioBorn in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Barry Trost began his university training at the University of Pennsylvania (BA, 1962) and completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1965). He moved directly to the University of Wisconsin, where he was promoted to Professor of Chemistry and subsequently Vilas Research Professor. He joined the faculty at Stanford as Professor of Chemistry in 1987 and became Tamaki Professor of Humanities and Sciences in 1990. In addition to serving multiple visiting professorships, Professor Trost was presented with a Docteur honoris causa of the Université Claude-Bernard (Lyon I), France, and in 1997 a Doctor Scientiarum Honoris Causa of the Technion, Haifa, Israel. In recognition of his innovations and scholarship in the field of organic synthesis, Professor Trost has received the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry, ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, and the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, among many others. Professor Trost has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Chemical Society, and American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and served as Chairman of the NIH Medicinal Chemistry Study Section. He has held over 125 special university lectureships and presented over 270 Plenary Lectures at national and international meetings. He has published two books and over 950 scientific articles. He edited a major compendium entitled Comprehensive Organic Synthesis consisting of nine volumes and serves on the editorial board for Science of Synthesis and Reaxys.
The Trost Group’s research program revolves around the theme of synthesis, including target molecules with potential applications as novel catalysts, as well as antibiotic and antitumor therapies. The work comprises two major activities: 1) developing the tools, i.e., the reactions and reagents, and 2) creating the proper network of reactions to make complex targets readily available from simple starting materials.
Efforts to develop "chemists' enzymes" – non-peptidic transition metal based catalysts that can perform chemo-, regio-, diastereo-, and especially enantioselective reactions – focus close attention to the question of atom economy to minimize waste, energy, and consumption of raw materials.
Synthetic efficiency raises the question of metal catalyzed cycloadditions to rings other than six-membered. A general strategy is evolving for a "Diels-Alder" equivalent for formation of five, seven, nine, etc. membered carbo- and heterocyclic rings.
An exciting new direction derives from the molecular gymnastics acetylenes undergo in the presence of transition metals. Additional specific goals include cycloisomerization to virtually all types of ring sizes and systems with particularly versatile juxtaposition of functionality.
Palladium and ruthenium catalysts represent a major part of the lab's efforts, in order to invent new synthetic processes together with new opportunities for selectivity complementary to that obtained using other metal complexes. Main group chemistry, especially involving silicon, zinc, and sulfur, also offers many opportunities for new reaction design. Rational design of novel catalysts for asymmetric additions to carbonyl and imine groups are an exciting thrust.From these new synthetic tools evolve new synthetic strategies towards complex natural products. Targets include β-lactam antibiotics, ionophores, steroids and related compounds (e.g., Vitamin D metabolites), alkaloids, nucleosides, carbohydrates, and macrolide, terpenoid, and tetracyclic antitumor and antibiotic agents. -
Robert Waymouth
Robert Eckles Swain Professor of Chemistry and Professor, by courtesy, of Chemical Engineering
BioRobert Eckles Swain Professor in Chemistry Robert Waymouth investigates new catalytic strategies to create useful new molecules, including bioactive polymers, synthetic fuels, and sustainable plastics. In one such breakthrough, Professor Waymouth and Professor Wender developed a new class of gene delivery agents.
Born in 1960 in Warner Robins, Georgia, Robert Waymouth studied chemistry and mathematics at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia (B.S. and B.A., respectively, both summa cum laude, 1982). He developed an interest in synthetic and mechanistic organometallic chemistry during his doctoral studies in chemistry at the California Institute of Technology under Professor R.H. Grubbs (Ph.D., 1987). His postdoctoral research with Professor Piero Pino at the Institut fur Polymere, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, focused on catalytic hydrogenation with chiral metallocene catalysts. He joined the Stanford University faculty as assistant professor in 1988, becoming full professor in 1997 and in 2000 the Robert Eckles Swain Professor of Chemistry.
Today, the Waymouth Group applies mechanistic principles to develop new concepts in catalysis, with particular focus on the development of organometallic and organic catalysts for the synthesis of complex macromolecular architectures. In organometallic catalysis, the group devised a highly selective alcohol oxidation catalyst that selectively oxidizes unprotected polyols and carbohydrates to alpha-hyroxyketones. In collaboration with Dr. James Hedrick of IBM, we have developed a platform of highly active organic catalysts and continuous flow reactors that provide access to polymer architectures that are difficult to access by conventional approaches.
The Waymouth group has devised selective organocatalytic strategies for the synthesis of functional degradable polymers and oligomers that function as "molecular transporters" to deliver genes, drugs and probes into cells and live animals. These advances led to the joint discovery with the Wender group of a general, safe, and remarkably effective concept for RNA delivery based on a new class of synthetic cationic materials, Charge-Altering Releasable Transporters (CARTs). This technology has been shown to be effective for mRNA based cancer vaccines. -
Paul Wender
Francis W. Bergstrom Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMolecular imaging, therapeutics, drug delivery, drug mode of action, synthesis
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Yan Xia
Associate Professor of Chemistry
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsPolymer Chemistry, Microporous Polymer Membranes, Responsive Polymers, Degradable Polymers, Polymers with Unique Mechanical Behaviors, Polymer Networks, Organic Electronic Materials
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Richard Zare
Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor of Natural Science and Professor, by courtesy, of Physics
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research group is exploring a variety of topics that range from the basic understanding of chemical reaction dynamics to the nature of the chemical contents of single cells.
Under thermal conditions nature seems to hide the details of how elementary reactions occur through a series of averages over reagent velocity, internal energy, impact parameter, and orientation. To discover the effects of these variables on reactivity, it is necessary to carry out studies of chemical reactions far from equilibrium in which the states of the reactants are more sharply restricted and can be varied in a controlled manner. My research group is attempting to meet this tough experimental challenge through a number of laser techniques that prepare reactants in specific quantum states and probe the quantum state distributions of the resulting products. It is our belief that such state-to-state information gives the deepest insight into the forces that operate in the breaking of old bonds and the making of new ones.
Space does not permit a full description of these projects, and I earnestly invite correspondence. The following examples are representative:
The simplest of all neutral bimolecular reactions is the exchange reaction H H2 -> H2 H. We are studying this system and various isotopic cousins using a tunable UV laser pulse to photodissociate HBr (DBr) and hence create fast H (D) atoms of known translational energy in the presence of H2 and/or D2 and using a laser multiphoton ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer to detect the nascent molecular products in a quantum-state-specific manner by means of an imaging technique. It is expected that these product state distributions will provide a key test of the adequacy of various advanced theoretical schemes for modeling this reaction.
Analytical efforts involve the use of capillary zone electrophoresis, two-step laser desorption laser multiphoton ionization mass spectrometry, cavity ring-down spectroscopy, and Hadamard transform time-of-flight mass spectrometry. We believe these methods can revolutionize trace analysis, particularly of biomolecules in cells.
