Daniel Kahne
MIKI 2008 Keynote Speaker

Dr. Daniel Kahne received his B.Sc. from Cornell University in 1981 and his Ph.D. in 1986 from Columbia University, where he studied under the guidance of Gilbert Stork.  He continued his postdoctoral training at Columbia University as a synthetic organic chemist with Clark Still from 1986 to 1988.  Dr. Kahne joined the Department of Chemistry at Princeton University in 1988 as an assistant professor and stayed on the faculty for 16 years as the A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Chemistry.  In 2004, he moved to Harvard University where he today holds appointments in both the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University and the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Kahne has co-authored 99 papers to date and holds a number of awards, including the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the ACS Division of Organic Chemistry (1996) and the Horace S. Isbell Award from the ACS Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry (1995).

The Kahne group uses chemistry to study the biological mechanisms of natural products.  Bacterial resistance to existing antibiotics is an ever-increasing problem.  In addition to the need for new antimicrobial therapeutics, the field of antibiotic resistance presents interesting challenges from both a chemical and biological perspective.  Additionally, antibiotics are useful tools for dissecting biological pathways.  Current interests of the Kahne group include:

• Glycopeptide Antibiotics
• Moenomycin and Bacterial Transglycosylases
• Outer Cell Membrane Biogenesis
• Stereochemically Diverse Carbohydrate Scaffolds

More information about Dr. Kahne and his research can be found on the Kahne Group Website.