时间：2010年3月17日上午9：30-10:30
报告人：CHRISTIAN R. H. RAETZ，杜克大学教授，哈佛大学博士，美国科学院院士
报告题目：New antibiotics that target outer membrane lipids of Gram-negative bacteria
Professor Raetz will discuss the discovery by his laboartory of the ten-step biosynthetic pathway for generating the lipid A (endotoxin) component of lipopolysaccharide, which makes up the outer surface of the outer membrane of gram negative bacteria likeE. coli. His recent studies have culminated in the identification of inhibitors of the second enzyme in the pathway (LpxC), which show potent antibiotic activity against multi-drug resistant pathogens. The elucidation of lipid A system illustrates the critical interplay of basic and applied research in new drug development.
Chris Raetz completed his M.D. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Harvard in 1973. After postdoctoral studies at the NIH, he joined the Biochemistry Faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1976. From 1987-1993, he was Vice President for Basic Research at Merck. In 1993, Raetz returned to academia as Chair of Duke Biochemistry. Professor Raetz discovered the biosynthetic pathways by which Gram-negative bacteria generate their outer membrane lipids, specifically the lipid A (endotoxin) portion of lipopolysaccharide. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America in 2006. His broader research interests include the structural biology of lipid/protein interactions, lipid enzymology, lipid structure elucidation, and antibiotic discovery.
