Dr. Thomas V. O’Halloran is widely known for his interdisciplinary research
program, which involves chemical synthesis, analytical chemistry, biochemistry,
molecular biology and cell biology. In his role of the Director of the Chemistry of
Life Processes Institute, Professor O’Halloran administers and leads teams of
interdisciplinary biomedical researchers. This Institute brings together researchers
from the fields of chemistry, biology, physics, engineering, medicine, proteomics,
nanobiotechnology, molecular therapeutics and biological molecular imaging. He
also serves as the Senior Advisor to the Director of the Robert H. Lurie
Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.
Professor O’Halloran received his BS and MA degrees in Chemistry from the University of Missouri,
and a PhD in 1985 from Columbia University in Bioinorganic Chemistry. Dr. O'Halloran joined the
faculty of Northwestern University in 1986 after postdoctoral training at MIT. Dr. O'Halloran is the
Morrison Professor in the Department of Chemistry and in the Department of Molecular Biosciences at
Northwestern. In his tenure at Northwestern University he has supervised over 40 Ph.D. theses and more
than 25 postdoctoral fellows. Professor O'Halloran's scientific recognitions include a National Science
Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, a National Searle Scholars Award, an Alfred P.
Sloan Research Fellowship, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar Award, the
American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Schering-Plough Scientific Achievement
Award, the David Denks Award for Research of copper Homeostasis Award and the Royal Society for
Chemistry Bioinorganic Award. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science as well
as a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. Professor O'Halloran received a MERIT award from the National
Institutes of Health.
His research centers on the regulatory biology and chemistry of transition metal receptors involved in
homeostasis, oxidative stress and developmental pathways. His laboratory focuses on molecular
mechanisms regulating the uptake, trafficking, utilization and intracellular fluxes of metals essential for
growth and proliferation (i.e., zinc, copper and iron), nanoscale drug delivery mechanisms and on the
mechanisms of clinically important anticancer agents that are based on arsenic, molybdenum and
platinum chemistry. His discoveries have established the functions and structures of two classes of
soluble receptors: metalloregulatory proteins that govern metal responsive gene expression and
metallochaperone proteins that control intracellular trafficking pathways. Most recently, he has
discovered nanoscale processes for targeted delivery of multifunctional therapeutic agents for treatment
of hematological cancer and solid tumors: these agents are moving rapidly towards clinical trials. Other
recent discoveries involve new roles for zinc fluxes in control of the earliest stages of mammalian
development.