Professor Alexander Spokoyny

Professor Alexander Spokoyny
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI)
University of California, Los Angeles

Organometallic Strategies for Modifying Biomolecules

Over the past decade, we and others have been engaged in developing a toolbox of organometallic reagents that can transfer complex functional groups onto biomolecules. This talk will describe some historical perspectives, reagent design considerations, and state-of-the-art chemistry that was discovered and developed in our laboratories. Specifically, I will highlight how this recent emergence of organometallic chemistry for the modification of biomolecular nanostructures has begun to rewrite the long-standing assumption among practitioners that small- molecule organometallics are fundamentally incompatible with biological systems. As research progresses, many of the challenges associated with applying organometallic chemistry in this context are being reassessed. Looking to the future, the growing utility of the organometallic transformations we and others have been developing will likely make them more ubiquitous in the construction and modification of biomolecular nanostructures. As such, I will also highlight several key emerging opportunities in this area of research.

Alexander Spokoyny

Alexander Spokoyny is a professor and chair of the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at UCLA and a faculty member of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI). He received his Ph.D. degree from Northwestern University in inorganic chemistry in 2011 and conducted a post- doctoral stint at MIT in chemical biology. His group’s research focuses on fundamental synthetic chemistry challenges that can be further applied to address pressing problems in biology, medicine, and materials science. Over his career, he has co-authored over 110 research manuscripts and received numerous national and international awards, including being named a 2024 Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and inaugural recipient of the IIN Trailblazer Award, receiving the 2020 Camille Dreyfus Teacher- Scholar Award, the 2019 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the 2018 Cottrell Scholar from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the 2017 Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in Chemistry, the 2017 NIH/NIGMS Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA), the 2016 Chemical and Engineering News (C&EN) Talented 12, the 2016 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, the 2013 Grand Poster Prize from the American Peptide Society, the 2012 International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Prize for Young Chemists, and the 2011 American Chemical Society Inorganic Young Investigator Award. His research has been highlighted by the popular press, including Science, Nature, C&EN, Cell Press, RSC, and other news outlets. At UCLA, Spokoyny has also been engaged in efforts to broaden scientific literacy among non-STEM undergraduates and students incarcerated at state prison facilities. For his efforts, he has received the 2021 UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award and the 2022 UCLA Community Service and Praxis Award.

Hosted by Professor Ian Tonks