Gregory L. Verdine
Harvard College Professor
Erving Professor of Chemistry
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Harvard University
12 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
Telephone: 617-495-5323
Facsimile: 617-495-8755
verdine@chemistry.harvard.edu
Professor Verdine's research interests lie in the
emerging area of chemical biology. He and his
co-workers aim to gain a fundamental understanding
of processes that control the expression and
preserve the integrity of genetic information. His
studies have elucidated the molecular mechanisms
by which DNA-modifying proteins - especially DNA
methyltransferases and DNA repair proteins recognize and process their substrates. Verdine is
the co-discoverer of a key pathway for the repair
of oxidatively damaged DNA in higher organisms,
including man. His efforts in the area of
transcriptional regulation have resulted in the
structural characterization of NF-kB (with S. C.
Harrison) and the isolation and structural
elucidation of the nuclear factor of activated T
cells (with A. Rao and G. Wagner, respectively).
Recently, he solved a long-standing problem in
transcriptional regulation by showing that acidic
activation domains undergo induced a-helix
formation upon binding to a target TAF protein. He
is the first to show that a completely non-natural
molecule can co-activate transcription in cells,
thus paving the way for the discovery of small
molecules that can directly activate the
expression of specific genes. For further
information, please refer to the Research pages of
this website.
Personal
Born:
June 10, 1959, Somers Point, New Jersey, USA
Education
1982
1986
1986-1988
B.S., Chemistry: St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia, PA (with
George Nelson)
Ph.D., Chemistry: Columbia University (with Koji Nakanishi)
NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Molecular Biology: MIT and Harvard Medical
School (with Christopher Walsh)
Honorary
1986
1986
1988
1988
1990
1990
1991
1991
1992
1992
1994
1994
1996
2001-2006
2002
Hammett Award for Distinguished Research, Columbia University
National Student Award, Federation of Analytical Chemistry and
Spectroscopy Societies
Dreyfus Distinguished New Faculty Award
DuPont Young Faculty Fellow, E. I. duPont de Nemours and Co.
Searle Scholar
Eli Lilly Grantee in Chemistry
Alfred P. Sloan Fellow
National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator
Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award
Thomas D. Cabot Associate Professor, Harvard University
Arthur C. Cope Scholar, American Chemical Society Division of Organic
Chemistry
Zeneca Pharmaceuticals Excellence in Chemistry Award
Eli Lilly Award, American Chemical Society Division of Biological
Chemistry
Harvard College Professor, Harvard University
Erving Professor of Chemistry, Harvard University
Special
Lectureships
1993
1995
1996
1996
Upjohn Distinguished Lecturer, Colorado State University, Fort
Collins, CO
Louis C. Jordy Research Lecturer, Drew University, Madison, NJ
Plenary Lecturer, 7th Annual Symposium on “Frontiers in Chemistry,”
Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA
Eli Lilly Award Lecturer, American Chemical Society Division of
1996
1999
1999
2000
2001
2001
2003
2003
Biological Chemistry, ACS Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL
Plenary Lecturer, 11th Annual William S. Johnson Symposium, Stanford
University, Stanford, CA
Bio-Méga/Boehringer Ingelheim Lecturer, University of British
Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Plenary Lecturer, Welch Foundation 43rd Conference on “Synthetic and
Biological Chemistry,” Houston, TX
John H. Blaffer Lecturer, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer
Center, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Houston, TX
Alexander M. Cruickshank Lecturer, Gordon Research Conference on
Mammalian DNA Repair, Ventura, CA
Keynote Lecturer, “Beyond Genomics: Chemical Biology” Symposium,
University of Minnesota, Department of Medicinal Chemistry,
Minneapolis, MN
Lecturer, President’s Research Seminar Series, Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
Lecturer, NCI Distinguished Speaker Seminar Series, National Cancer
Institute, Frederick, MD
Professional
1988-1992
1991-1995
1992-1994
1994-2002
1998
2000
2001-2006
2002
~~~~~~~~~~
1994-1998
1994-1999
19971997-1998
19991999-
Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Harvard University
Managing Director, Institute of Chemistry in Medicine, Harvard Medical
School
Thomas D. Cabot Associate Professor of Chemistry, Harvard University
Professor of Chemistry, Harvard University
Founding Faculty Member, Harvard Institute of Chemistry and Cell
Biology
Associate Member, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology,
Harvard University
Harvard College Professor, Harvard University
Erving Professor of Chemistry, Harvard University
Scientific Advisory Board, Japanese Institute of Physical and Chemical
Research(RIKEN), Carbohydrate Chemistry Division
Bioorganic and Natural Products Study Section, National Institutes of
Health
Scientific Advisory Board, Department of Chemistry, University of
Basel, Switzerland
Developmental Therapeutics Review Board, National Cancer Institute
Board of Scientific Counselors, National Cancer Institute
Searle Scholar Program Advisory Board
200020022003~~~~~~~~~~
19981999~~~~~~~~~~
1993-2001
1996199619961998199920002001-
Scientific Advisory Committee, Damon Runyon Cancer Research
Foundation
International Advisory Committee of the New Graduate School in
Okinawa, Government of Japan
Scientific Advisory Board, Max Planck Institute of Molecular
Physiology, Dortmund, Germany
Scientific Advisory Board, Roche Bioscience
Co-Founder; Chair of Scientific Advisory Board; and Member, Board of
Directors; Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Associate Editor, Chemistry & Biology
Editorial Board, Current Opinion in Chemical Biology
Consulting Editor, Biooorganic & Medicinal Chemistry and Bioorganic
& Medicinal Chemistry Letters
Consulting Editor, Tetrahedron Publications
Editorial Board, Current Opinion in Anti-inflammatory and
Immunomodulatory Drugs
Editorial Board, Synlett
Advisory Board, Genome Biology
Editorial Board, Nucleic Acids Research