The rockefeller university

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Jon Clardy, Ph.D., Hsien Wu and Daisy Yen Wu Professor, department of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, Harvard Medical School

Speaker bio(s)

Fungus-growing insect systems in which insects collect plant (and other) material to feed their fungal crop have evolved at least three times: bark beetles, termites, and ants. These systems also involve microbial symbionts including a specialized fungal pathogen and bacteria that provide chemical defenses, and small molecules regulate the complex set of interactions between insects, fungi, and bacteria. Dr. Clardy’s lecture will largely focus on ant studies, but the termite and beetle systems will be mentioned. There are many motivations for studying the fungus-growing ant system: discovering new molecules and their biosynthetic pathways, decoding the evolutionary strategies of biosynthetic diversification, revealing cryptic metabolites, and potentially providing therapeutic agents. Dr. Clardy’s lecture will give examples to illustrate each of these points.

 

Dr. Clardy’s research has focused on naturally occurring biologically active small molecules, their macromolecular targets, and their roles in biology and medicine. He received his B.S. in chemistry from Yale University with highest honors and his Ph.D., also in chemistry, from Harvard University. He has served on the faculties of the chemistry departments at Iowa State University and Cornell University, and he is currently the Hsien Wu and Daisy Yen Wu Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School, where he has been for 15 years. He has also served as both a department chair and associate dean, and at Harvard he founded and co-directed the Chemical Biology Graduate Program. He has taught throughout his career in a variety of contexts from large undergraduate lectures in beginning organic chemistry, for which he was awarded the Clark Teaching Award from Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences, lecture courses for graduate students, and lecture courses for non-science majors. His Molecules of Life course was the most popular biological science course in Harvard’s General Education curriculum, and he currently teaches a small seminar for first-year undergraduates on psychoactive drugs.

 

Dr. Clardy’s work was recognized early in his career with academic prizes as a student and awards from both the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation for beginning scholars. More recently, he has received the Research Achievement Award from the American Society of Pharmacognosy in 2004 and the A.I. Scott Medal from the American Chemical Society and Texas A&M University in 2016. Dr. Clardy is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Academy of Microbiology.

Open to

Public

Host

Sean Brady, Ph.D.

Reception

Refreshments, 3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., Abby Lounge

Contact

Justin Sloboda

Phone

(212) 327-7785

Sponsor

Justin Sloboda
(212) 327-7785
jsloboda@rockefeller.edu