NVBMB spreker van het jaar 2007: Christopher Walsh, Harvard Medical School, Boston, VS
For the past five decades, the need for new antibiotics has been largely met by semisynthetic tailoring of natural product scaffolds discovered in the middle of the 20th century. More recently, however, advances in technology have sparked a resurgence in the discovery of natural product antibiotics from bacterial sources. This has resulted in several newly discovered antibiotics with unique scaffolds and/or novel mechanisms of action, with the potential to form a basis for new antibiotic classes addressing bacterial targets that are currently underexploited.
In his lecture, prof Walsh will discuss the prospects for renewed discovery of natural antibiotics. He will consider how many new molecules are still to be found and how we find them. Furthermore, he will explain the molecular aspects of novel strategies for engaging old and new bacterial targets.
Christopher Walsh is the Hamilton Kuhn Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. He is one of the leading enzymologists and chemical biologists in the world. His research has focused on enzymes and enzyme inhibitors, with recent specialization on the biosynthesis and mechanism of action of antibiotics and other biologically and medicinally active natural products. He has published over 650 scientific articles, and three books: Enzymatic Reaction Mechanisms (1979); Antibiotics: Origins, Actions, Resistance (2003); Posttranslational Modification of Proteins: Expanding Nature’s Inventory (2005). Professor Walsh’s accomplishments have been recognized through numerous awards. He has been a consultant to government, academic institutions, and large pharmaceuticals, and been involved in scientific advisory capacity for many companies and venture capital groups.