VOLUME 12, NUMBER 20 • APRIL 20, 2001

Friday Lecture

Chemist to discuss antibiotic resistance

Daniel Kahne will discuss how to modify the drug vancomycin so that it can remain effective.

Daniel Kahne, a professor of chemistry at Princeton University, will present the Friday lecture today (April 20). His topic will be "Cellular Targets of Glycopeptide Antibiotics."

Vancomycin is an antibiotic that is used as a drug of last resort. Evidence of bacterial resistance to the drug has thus been a major cause of concern in the medical community. Kahne will discuss a set of studies that give clues how to modify the drug so that it can remain effective.

Vancomycin derivatives containing modified carbohydrates have activity against vancomycin-resistant strains. The modified compounds apparently act on a different target than the parent compound, vancomycin. In his talk today, Kahne will focus on biochemical and genetic evidence implicating other targets for modified vancomycin derivatives.

Kahne received his B.A. from Cornell University in 1981 and his Ph.D. from Columbia University, where he did his doctoral research with Gilbert Stork. After a postdoctoral fellowship with W. Clark Still at Columbia, Kahne joined Princeton University as an assistant professor of chemistry in 1988. He is currently the A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Chemistry at Princeton.

He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Wilson Prize, Harvard University; the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Organic Chemistry; the Merck Young Investigator Award, Merck Research Laboratories; the Horace S. Isbell Award, ACS Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry; the Arun Guthikonda Memorial Award, Columbia University; and the ICI Pharmaceuticals Excellence in Chemistry Award.

He has also been a Fuson Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow; a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator, a Lilly grantee, an ONR Young Investigator and a Searle Scholar.

Kahne’s talk begins at 3:45 p.m. in Caspary Auditorium and is preceded by a tea in the Abby Lounge at 3:15 p.m. All are welcome.