Temple University
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Daniel Swern Memorial Lecture 2008
This lecture was held in honor of Daniel Swern, a former professor in the Department of Chemistry. Dr. Swern is most well-known for his discovery of the Swern oxidation process. According to faculty member Robert Levis, Dr. Swern's papers still generate close to 200 citations each year.
Photo: Dr. Daniel Swern
Gregory L. Verdine
Irving Professor of Chemistry, Harvard University
Gregory Verdine's research interests lie in the emerging area of chemical
biology. He aims to gain a fundamental understanding of processes that
control the expression and preserve the integrity of genetic information. His studies have elucidated the molecular mechanisms by which DNA-modifying
proteins - especially DNA methyltransferases and DNA repair proteins -
recognize and process their substrates. Verdine is the co-discoverer of a key pathway for the repair of oxidatively damaged DNA in higher organisms,
including man. His efforts in the area of transcriptional regulation have resulted in the structural characterization of NF-kB (with S. C. Harrison) and the isolation and structural elucidation of the nuclear factor of activated T cells (with A. Rao and G. Wagner, respectively). Recently, he solved a long-standing problem in transcriptional regulation by showing that acidic activation domains undergo
induced a-helix formation upon binding to a target TAF protein. He is the first to show that a completely non-natural molecule can co-activate transcription in cells, thus paving the way for the discovery of small molecules that can directly activate the expression of specific genes.
Event sponsored by Wyeth Research
Swern Memorial Lecture 2007 - Dr. Bruce H. Roth