CHEM 583CChemical Biology

Catalog

Historically, work at the interface of chemistry and biology has been broadly grouped into Biological Chemistry (or Biochemistry). Then what is Chemical Biology? How is Chemical Biology different from traditional Biological Chemistry? A short answer is that scientists in this emerging field aim to spy on biomolecules in their native environments. These biomolecules include proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, lipids, and natural products (i.e. the molecules of life). The challenge, as well as the attraction, of such an approach lies in the complexity of the in vivo environment. Imagine the difficulty of studying one kind of protein in a background of thousands (if not tens of thousands) of other kinds of proteins in a cell. How do you tell them apart? How do you keep track of the protein that you are interested in? Therefore, developing selective chemical tags by synthesis-the corner stone of chemistry-is the key enabling endeavor in chemical biology. The reward is that the information gained is 'the reality' that particular biomolecule is 'meant to experience'. This is in drastic contrast to the reductionist approach employed by traditional Biochemistry involving separation, purification, and reconstitution of biomolecules in artificial environments (science in vitro). As Chemical Biologists, we feel the efforts in studying biomolecules in isolated, controlled environments have paid off-that is, in some cases, we have enough reference information to go forward with, and we are looking forward to studying what these biomolecules are doing in their native environments-in living cells, tissues, animals, and people (science in vivo). Much of Chemical Biology is the development of small molecules as probes of biology and medicine. In some ways, all small molecule drugs (~ 80 % of all drugs) are success stories of Chemical Biology because they must work in people-the ultimate in vivo setting. And vice versa, pharmacology is a rich ground for discovery of biology because in many cases we still don't know how drugs and toxins exactly work. Perhaps the most striking example involves the story of the mysterious compound cyclopamine (isolated from corn lily). As you might have guessed from its namesake, sheep that grazed on too much wild corn lily gave birth to one-eyed lambs. Deducing the target of action of cyclopamine led to the discovery of the hedgehog signaling network in cells. By shutting down this network, a new way to fight cancer was born. Textbook: no textbook, course reading material will be posted; Prerequisite: enrolled in BCCB grad program or by permission of instructor.