Carolyn R. Bertozzi
Encyclopedia
Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi is an American chemist
. She is the T.Z. and Irmgard Chu Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley
; Professor of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco
; is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
; and is the former Director of the Molecular Foundry
, a nanoscience research center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
. She received a MacArthur "genius" award at age 33, making her one of the youngest scientists to receive this award. In 2010 she was the first woman to receive the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Prize
faculty award. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences
and the Institute of Medicine
.
, Massachusetts
, Bertozzi received her Bachelor's Degree summa cum laude in chemistry
from Harvard University
, where she worked with Professor Joe Grabowski on the design and construction of a photoacoustic calorimeter. After graduating she worked briefly at Bell Labs
with Chris Chidsey and at Massachusetts General Hospital
.
Bertozzi completed her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley in 1993 with Professor Mark Bednarski, working on the chemical synthesis
of oligosaccharide
analogs. She then was a postdoctoral fellow at UCSF with Professor Steven Rosen, where she studied the activity of endothelial oligosaccharides in promoting cell adhesion at inflammation
sites. Bertozzi joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1996.
Bertozzi studies the glycobiology
underlying diseases such as cancer
, inflammatory disorders such as arthritis
, and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis
. In particular, Bertozzi has advanced understanding of cell surface oligosaccharides involved in cell recognition and inter-cellular communication. Bertozzi is credited for developing the field of bioorthogonal chemistry
which employs a bioorthogonal chemical reporters, such as the azide
to label biomolecules within living systems. Her lab has also developed tools for research, including chemical tools for studying glycans
in living systems and more recently nanotechnologies for probing biological systems.
In addition to her academic work, several of the technologies developed in her lab have been adapted for commercial use in biotechnology start-ups.
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
. She is the T.Z. and Irmgard Chu Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
; Professor of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco
University of California, San Francisco
The University of California, San Francisco is one of the world's leading centers of health sciences research, patient care, and education. UCSF's medical, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, and graduate schools are among the top health science professional schools in the world...
; is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Howard Hughes Medical Institute is a United States non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded by the American businessman Howard Hughes in 1953. It is one of the largest private funding organizations for biological and medical research in the United...
; and is the former Director of the Molecular Foundry
Molecular Foundry
- The Molecular Foundry : is a nanoscience user facility located at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, and is one of five nanoscale science research centers sponsored by the United States Department of Energy...
, a nanoscience research center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory conducting unclassified scientific research. It is located on the grounds of the University of California, Berkeley, in the Berkeley Hills above the central campus...
. She received a MacArthur "genius" award at age 33, making her one of the youngest scientists to receive this award. In 2010 she was the first woman to receive the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Prize
Lemelson-MIT Prize
The Lemelson Foundation awards several prizes yearly to inventors in United States. The largest is the Lemelson-MIT Prize which was endowed in 1994 by Jerome H. Lemelson, and is administered through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
faculty award. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences
National Academy of Sciences
National Academy of Sciences commonly refers to the academy in the United States of America.National Academy of Sciences may also refer to :* National Academy of Sciences of Argentina* Armenian National Academy of Sciences...
and the Institute of Medicine
Institute of Medicine
The Institute of Medicine is a not-for-profit, non-governmental American organization founded in 1970, under the congressional charter of the National Academy of Sciences...
.
Biography
Born in BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, Bertozzi received her Bachelor's Degree summa cum laude in chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, where she worked with Professor Joe Grabowski on the design and construction of a photoacoustic calorimeter. After graduating she worked briefly at Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
with Chris Chidsey and at Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital is a teaching hospital and biomedical research facility in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts...
.
Bertozzi completed her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley in 1993 with Professor Mark Bednarski, working on the chemical synthesis
Chemical synthesis
In chemistry, chemical synthesis is purposeful execution of chemical reactions to get a product, or several products. This happens by physical and chemical manipulations usually involving one or more reactions...
of oligosaccharide
Oligosaccharide
An oligosaccharide is a saccharide polymer containing a small number of component sugars, also known as simple sugars...
analogs. She then was a postdoctoral fellow at UCSF with Professor Steven Rosen, where she studied the activity of endothelial oligosaccharides in promoting cell adhesion at inflammation
Inflammation
Inflammation is part of the complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. Inflammation is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli and to initiate the healing process...
sites. Bertozzi joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1996.
Bertozzi studies the glycobiology
Glycobiology
Defined in the broadest sense, glycobiology is the study of the structure, biosynthesis, and biology of saccharides that are widely distributed in nature...
underlying diseases such as cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, inflammatory disorders such as arthritis
Arthritis
Arthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....
, and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. In particular, Bertozzi has advanced understanding of cell surface oligosaccharides involved in cell recognition and inter-cellular communication. Bertozzi is credited for developing the field of bioorthogonal chemistry
Bioorthogonal chemistry
The term bioorthogonal chemistry refers to any chemical reaction that can occur inside of living systems without interfering with native biochemical processes. The term was coined by Carolyn R. Bertozzi with the development of the Staudinger ligation in 2000...
which employs a bioorthogonal chemical reporters, such as the azide
Azide
Azide is the anion with the formula N3−. It is the conjugate base of hydrazoic acid. N3− is a linear anion that is isoelectronic with CO2 and N2O. Per valence bond theory, azide can be described by several resonance structures, an important one being N−=N+=N−...
to label biomolecules within living systems. Her lab has also developed tools for research, including chemical tools for studying glycans
Glycans
The term glycan refers to a polysaccharide or oligosaccharide. Glycans usually consist solely of O-glycosidic linkages of monosaccharides. For example, cellulose is a glycan composed of beta-1,4-linked D-glucose, and chitin is a glycan composed of beta-1,4-linked N-acetyl-D-glucosamine...
in living systems and more recently nanotechnologies for probing biological systems.
In addition to her academic work, several of the technologies developed in her lab have been adapted for commercial use in biotechnology start-ups.
Significant papers and publications
- Science 1997
- Carolyn R. Bertozzi and and Laura L. KiesslingLaura L. KiesslingLaura L. Kiessling is an American biochemist, and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, at University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is the director of the Keck Center for Chemical Genomics, and the NIH Chemistry-Biology Interface Training Program....
. "Chemical Glycobiology." Science 23 March 2001: 2357-2364. [DOI:10.1126/science.1059820] - Eliana Saxon and Carolyn R. Bertozzi. "Cell Surface Engineering by a Modified Staudinger Reaction." Science 17 March 2000: 2007-2010. [DOI:10.1126/science.287.5460.2007]
- Prescher, J. A.; Bertozzi, C. R. (2005). "Chemistry in living systems". Nature Chemical Biology 1 (1): 13–21. doi:10.1038/nchembio0605-13. PMID 16407987.
- Glycochemistry (2001) edited by Peng George Wang and Bertozzi
Awards and honors
- Phi Beta Kappa (1987)
- Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award of the American Chemical SocietyAmerican Chemical SocietyThe American Chemical Society is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 161,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical...
(1999) - MacArthur Fellowship (1999)
- Berkeley's Distinguished Teaching Award (2001)
- Donald Sterling Noyce Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2001)
- Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of ScienceThe American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
(2002) - Irving Sigal Young Investigator Award of the Protein Society (2002)
- Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesThe American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
(2003) - Agnes Fay Morgan Research AwardAgnes Fay Morgan Research AwardThe Agnes Fay Morgan Research Award was established in 1951 by the Iota Sigma Pi honorary society for women in chemistry. The award is given for research achievement in chemistry or biochemistry to a woman not over forty years of age at the time of her nomination...
of Iota Sigma PiIota Sigma PiIota Sigma Pi is an elective US honor society for women in chemistry, first established in 1902. The organization presents several awards to women in chemistry.- Professional Awards :* Centennial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching...
(2004) - Havinga Medal, Univ. Leiden (2005)
- Member of the National Academy of SciencesUnited States National Academy of SciencesThe National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
(2005) - Ernst Schering Prize (2007)
- Willard Gibbs AwardWillard Gibbs AwardThe Willard Gibbs Award, which consists of an eighteen-carat gold medal, the Willard Gibbs Medal, was founded in 1910 by William A. Converse. The medal was named after J. Willard Gibbs. The award recognizes "eminent chemists who .....
(2008) - Lemelson-MIT PrizeLemelson-MIT PrizeThe Lemelson Foundation awards several prizes yearly to inventors in United States. The largest is the Lemelson-MIT Prize which was endowed in 1994 by Jerome H. Lemelson, and is administered through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
(2010) - ACS Award in Pure Chemistry
- MerckMerckMerck may refer to:* Merck KGaA, , a German-based chemical and pharmaceutical company.** Merck Serono , the pharmaceutical division of Merck KGaA...
Academic Development Program Award - Glaxo Wellcome Scholars' Award
- Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering
- Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award
- Hoarce S. Isbell Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry
- Alfred P. SloanAlfred P. Sloan FoundationThe Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a philanthropic non-profit organization in the United States. It was established in 1934 by Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., then-President and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors.-Overview:...
Research Fellowship - Emanuel Merck Lectureship (2011)
External links
- Bertozzi profile at Bertozzi Lab
- Carolyn Bertozzi's iBioSeminar on Chemical Glycobiology
- Mary Beth Gardiner, "The Right Chemistry" (profile of Bertozzi), HHMI Bulletin Winter 2005, available at http://www.hhmi.org/bulletin/pdf/winter2005/Bertozzi.pdf