Travis S. Young ’05 (left)
Young majored in biochemistry and plans to pursue a Ph.D. in chemical biology at the Scripps Research Institute this fall.
Synthesis of Inhibitors for the Mechanistic Analysis of DpgC: An Enzyme in the Biosynthetic Pathway of Vancomycin
Steven Bruner, assistant professor, chemistry department
“Travis initiated a project in our laboratory group examining the biosynthesis of the antibiotic vancomycin, which is reserved for use to treat bacterial infections that do not respond to standard therapies. This includes life-threatening staph and meningitis infections. Infectious bacteria have the ability to develop resistance, rendering drugs like vancomycin ineffective and necessitating the continual development of new drugs. The overall goal of Travis’ project is to understand and eventually engineer the natural biosynthesis to produce novel therapeutics that overcome resistance. He was able to successfully design and synthesize chemical probes that will be used to decipher the complex mechanism of vancomycin production and guide future engineering efforts.”