IIT Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering will host a seminar, co-sponsored by the Pritzker Institute of Biomedical Science and Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, and the Division of Chemistry, welcoming Stanford University Wells H. Rauser and Harold M. Petiprin Professor of Engineering Chaitan Khosla. Khosla’s primary research interest focuses on the interface of chemistry and medicine.

Assembly Line Biosynthesis of Polyketide Antibiotics
Chaitan Khosla

Wednesday, February 27, 3:15 pm
Perlstein Hall Auditorium

Many complex natural products are synthesized by multi-enzyme systems that operate as assembly lines. Their apparently modular architecture has opened the door to biosynthetic engineering of new natural products by rationally manipulating the DNA encoding these megasynthases. Understanding the structures and mechanisms of these assembly lines represents a challenging and exciting frontier in multifunctional catalysis.

Chaitan Khosla received his PhD in 1990 at Caltech, and in 1992 joined Stanford University after completing postdoctoral studies at the John Innes Centre in the UK. Over the past two decades, his research on polyketide synthases has opened the door to fundamentally new approaches for biosynthetic engineering of antibiotics. More recently, he has also investigated celiac sprue pathogenesis with the goal of developing therapies for this widespread but overlooked disease.

Khosla is an laureate of several prestigious awards including the National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering; the Allan P. Colburn Award and the Professional Progress Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers; the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, the Pure Chemistry Award, and Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society; and the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science Foundation. He is an elected member of the American Academy for Arts and Science and the National Academy of Engineering. Khosla co-authored 290 publications and 72 U.S. patents.

Contact Marvie Fields in the Office of International Affairs or Emilia Clayton at the Pritzker Institute with any questions.