Professor Hans Renata
Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry
Rice University
“Combining Synthetic Chemistry and Biology for Streamlining Access to Complex Molecules”
By virtue of their unrivaled selectivity profiles, enzymes possess re markable potential to address unsolved challenges in chemical synthesis. The realization of this potential, however, has only recently gained traction. Recent advances in enzyme engineering and genome mining have provided a powerful platform for identifying and optimizing enzymatic transformations for synthetic applications and allowed us to begin formulating novel synthetic strategies and disconnections. This talk will describe our recent efforts in developing a new design language in chemical synthesis that centers on the incorporation of biocatalytic approaches in contemporary synthetic logic. Case studies will focus on the use of this platform in the chemoenzymatic syntheses of complex natural products and also highlight how this platform could serve as a starting point to enable further biological and medicinal chemistry discoveries.
Hans Renata
Hans Renata received his B.A. degree from Columbia University in 2008, conducting research under the tutelage of Professor Tristan H. Lambert. He earned his Ph.D. from The Scripps Research Institute in 2013 under the guidance of Professor Phil S. Baran. After postdoctoral studies with Professor Frances H. Arnold at the California Institute of Technology, he started his independent career at The Scripps Research Institute in 2016. In 2022, he moved to Rice University as an Associate Professor and CIPRIT Scholar. His research focuses on natural product synthesis and biocatalytic reaction developments. For these efforts, he has received several notable awards, such as the NSF CAREER award, the Sloan fellowship, the Chemical and Engineering News “Talented 12” award and the Arthur C. Cope Scholar award.
Sponsored by Organic Syntheses and AbbVie
331 Smith Hall