Title: Twisting the reactivity of cofactor-dependent enzymes for new-to-nature chemical transformations
Abstract: Extending the reactivity of biological catalysts beyond the realm of enzymatic transformations occurring in nature can offer new opportunities for organic synthesis and asymmetric catalysis. This seminar will present recent progress made by our group toward the design and application of engineered hemoproteins and other cofactor-dependent enzymes for catalyzing ‘new-to-nature’ transformations, with a focus on selective C(sp3)–H functionalization reactions achieved through abiological reactive intermediates and the synergistic integration of enzyme catalysis with chemical hydrogen atom transfer. These systems have furnished new avenues for the stereoselective construction of carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds and the late-stage functionalization of drugs and other medicinally relevant scaffolds. This seminar will also discuss our progress in the development of chemoenzymatic strategies for the skeletal editing and diversity-oriented synthesis of natural product-like molecules, as promising approaches for exploring new, biologically relevant regions of the chemical space.
Bio: Rudi Fasan was born in Italy and studied Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Padua, where he received his undergraduate degree (B.S.) with the highest honors in 1999. After serving mandatory military service in Italy and Romania, he received a PhD degree in Bioorganic Chemistry (2001-2005) under the supervision of Prof. John Robinson at the University of Zurich (Switzerland), working on the design and synthesis of beta-hairpin protein epitope mimetics. In 2005, he joined Prof. Frances Arnold’s group at the California Institute of Technology as a Swiss National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow, working on the directed evolution of P450 enzymes for alkane oxidation. Rudi began his independent career as a member of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Rochester in 2008 and was promoted to the rank of Full Professor in 2018. In 2019, he became the inaugural recipient of the Andrew S. Kende endowed Chair in Synthetic Organic Chemistry. At the University of Rochester, he established and directed a NIH-funded T32 program in Chemistry-Biology Interface (CBI) and a NSF-funded Chemistry Research for Medicine and Energy Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program. In July of 2023, Dr. Fasan moved to the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he holds the position of Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Chemistry and CPRIT Scholar. At UTD, he contributed to establish a new Center for High-Throughput Reaction Discovery & Synthesis (HT-RDS), for which he serves as co-Director.
His awards include a Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2005-2007), the 2007 Friedrich-Weygand Outstanding Graduate Research Award, a Provost Multidisciplinary Research Award (2011), a University Research Award (2016, 2021), the 2014 Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, 2020 Goergen Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the 2020 International Award for Creative Work from the Japan Society of Coordination Chemistry, and the 2023 Biotrans Young Investigator Award. He is a recipient of a Robert A. Welch Endowed Professorship and of a 2023 Established Investigator Award from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).
Faculty Host: Prof. Andrew Buller