The Chapman lab is a chemical biology lab. They are primarily focused on finding synthetic small molecules or natural probes and leads through targeted approaches, on understanding the mechanisms and modes of action of these molecules, and on improving the molecules through medicinal chemistry. We use contemporary molecular biology and protein biochemistry procedures to produce the desired target proteins and then develop assays amenable to moderate to high throughput screening. Through development, we use cellular amenable to understand the modes of action, biophysics to understand the mechanisms of action, structural biology to guide molecular improvements, and synthetic chemistry to optimize hit compounds. We often simultaneously probe families of enzymes in a parallel fashion in an effort to pre-program specificity, mitigating downstream off-target liabilities and aiding development. Currently, we have several programs in the lab including antibiotics targeting bacterial HSP60 (GroEL); anti-cancer targeting specific HSP70s, elF4A, and NRF2; and anti-type 2 diabetes targeting PTP1B.
BS, Chemistry, University of California at Berkeley, 1996
MA, Chemistry, Columbia University (New York), 1998
PhD, Chemistry, Scripps Research Institute (California), 2003