2023 ICBS Young Chemical Biologists Awardee

Tania Lupoli, Ph.D.

Department of Chemistry, New York University, USA

Dr. Lupoli is being recognized for the lab’s research on probing molecular mechanisms that bacteria employ to enable survival in diverse environments.  The Lupoli lab utilizes a multidisciplinary approach that combines techniques from chemical biology, organic chemistry and microbiology to design molecules that modulate bacterial chaperones and polysaccharides involved in host infection.  Recent work has resulted in the discovery of peptidomimetics that reduce antibiotic resistance through disruption of chaperone activation, as well as the development of chemoenzymatic methods for the synthesis of prokaryote-specific (“rare”) sugars required for bacterial surface polysaccharide assembly.  These findings can be applied towards the discovery of new adjuvants to potentiate existing antibiotics.

Award lecture: Incorporation and Recognition of Rare Sugars on Bacterial Cell Surfaces

ICBS Support: This year, Dr. Lupoli will attend the International Chemical Biology Society (ICBS) meeting. She will encourage trainees to disseminate their data to promote relationships with the global Chemical Biology community through continuous engagement in meetings and webinars offered by the ICBS, and hopes to organize future sessions of the meeting.