ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

Bacterial cells are covered by a complex carbohydrate coat of armor that allows bacteria to survive and thrive in a range of environments. Bacterial sugars are intriguing therapeutic targets since they have vastly different structures than their human counterparts, show variation from one bacterial species to another, and are related to a bacteria’s ability to cause disease. Professor Dube’s research aims to identify unique bacterial sugars and then to create antibiotic therapies that selectively target bacteria based on these sugars. Dube will describe how she and her students have developed chemical methods to learn more about the sugar repertoire in diverse bacteria and how they have used this information to “disarm” bacteria based on their distinctive sugar coating, providing a platform for the development of novel antibiotics that treat infectious disease and leave beneficial bacteria unharmed.

Professor Danielle Dube is the Norma L. and Roland G. Ware, Jr. Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ and chair of the Department of Chemistry. She earned her BA at Cornell University before moving to University of California–Berkeley, where she earned her PhD in 2005. Following postdoctoral studies at Stanford University, she began her independent career at ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ in 2007. Her work with undergraduates has been recognized by the Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award and supported by grants from the National Institutes of Heath and the National Science Foundation. She currently serves as member-at-large of the Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Chemical Glycobiology of the American Chemical Society, and she recently held the position of executive secretary and program director for the division.