Postdoc Research Seminars
Please join the PDA this Thursday at 3pm as we welcome 2 BSD postdocs to present their research (25 minute talks). All are welcome to join us to support and network with BSD postdocs, enjoy PIZZA and drinks!, and learn about exciting science happening in the BSD.
Date & Time:
Thursday, March 13 at 3:00 PM
Location:
BSLC 008
Speakers:
Rozenn Pineau, PhD: “The genomic response to drought across temporal scales”
Dr. Pineau is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Kreiner Lab in the UChicago Department of Ecology and Evolution. She works on the genomic architecture of plant adaptation to environmental changes and agricultural practices. Dr. Pineau completed her PhD at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Quantitative Bioscience, where she studied the emergence and maintenance of diversity in a long-term evolution experiment.
Zhenquan Sun, PhD: “Chemical Synthesis of Difficult Peptide and Protein by N,O/S-Benzylidene (thio)Acetals (NBA) Strategy”
Dr. Sun is a postdoctoral scholar at UChicago in the Lin lab specializing in chemical peptide and protein synthesis. His work focuses on developing innovative strategies for synthesizing and modifying complex biomolecules. During his doctoral studies, he achieved the first total synthesis and structural elucidation of the calcium-dependent antibiotic Malacidin A by pioneering a β‑hydroxyaspartic acid ligation method that overcomes challenging peptide cyclization. He then established the N,O/S-Benzylidene (thio)Acetal (NBA) strategy to address long-standing aggregation issues in the protein synthesis, from the solid-phase synthesis stage to chemical ligation. This technique has enabled the synthesis of difficult substrates including chemokines, hormones, glycosylated proteins, and the native immune checkpoint protein PD-L1 IgV domain. Additionally, he developed a superfast organoboron-based desulfurization chemistry to streamline polypeptide assembly, demonstrated with the LAIR-1 cytoplasmic domain and serotonylated Histone H3. Those methods open new avenues to access difficult peptide or protein for fundamental chemical biology research and novel therapeutic development.
Organized by:
BSD Postdoctoral Affairs
For more information:
Please contact Laurie Risner, PhD, Director, Postdoc Affairs, at lrisner1@bsd.uchicago.edu.