Dean's Distinguished Seminar Speaker

Attend online: zoom link

Abstract

The concept of click chemistry matured simultaneously in different laboratories around the world in the 1990’s. There was an urgent need for quantitative chemical reactions/molecular LEGO® to cope with the pressure from combinatorial science to synthesize, screen and identify one out of thousands – millions of compounds. We combined Peptide diversity with a variety of organic reactions including Diels Alder, Suzuki, INAIC and other reactions. During these investigations we more or less serendipitously discovered the CuAAC click reaction in 2001. The mechanism of the reaction will be discussed and its application in a variety of studies involving immobilization, mimicry, structural control and protein ligation will be presented. Our investigations included the CuAAC reaction in synthesis of stable surrogates for disulfide bonds in antibiotic 9, we produced a click protease with improved proteolytic activity and ligated the HIV fusion triple helix on to a fluorescent click template. The more existential aspects of our fundamental understanding of chemistry, the importance of serendipity to unravel the true complexity of our world at the molecular level, the associated need for freedom of research, and our pledge to the young to study chemistry for a better future, will also be discussed.

Bio

Morten Meldal is a Danish chemist and professor at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, alongside Barry Sharpless and Carolyn Bartozzi, for the groundbreaking development of ‘Click chemistry and biorthogonal chemistry’.  He also received the 2009 American Chemical Society Ralph F. Hirschmann Award in peptide chemistry, as well as the 2011 Vincent du Vigneaud Award of the American Peptide Society.

Meldal obtained his MSc in chemical engineering and PhD, under the supervision of Klaus Bock, from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Meldal’s PhD work focused on synthesis of carbohydrates, and after working as a postdoctoral fellow in organic chemistry at Cambridge University, he was professor and manager of a research synthesis group at Carlsberg Research Laboratory. In 2011, Meldal became professor at the Department of Chemistry at University of Copenhagen, where he headed the CECB research center within the field of chemical biology, with focus on peptide and combinatorial chemistry. Meldal co-founded three companies, Combio, Versamatrix, and Betamab Therapeutics ApS, which utilized the SPOCC and CECB platforms in biotechnological and pharmacological research and development.

Throughout Meldal’s career, his research has had innovative influences on methods in peptide and combinatorial chemistry. His involvement in method development of solid-phase and combinatorial peptide synthesis, as well as development of the CuAAc Click reaction, have become mainstream methods for application in bioorganic and organic synthesis.