James s mcdonnell biography sampler

A conversation between 2021 Nobel laureate in chemistry David W.C. MacMillan and Purdue President Mung Chiang

Date: Monday, Feb. 13 
Time: 6-7 p.m. ET 
Location: Stewart Center’s Fowler Hall  
The event is free and open to the public.  

Renowned professor and entrepreneur David W.C. MacMillan, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University, shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his groundbreaking work on catalysis. 

The Scottish-born MacMillan and organic chemist Benjamin List of Germany developed a type of catalysis in 2000 that builds upon small organic molecules. Catalysts are substances that accelerate chemical reactions without becoming part of the final product, an especially important factor for chemists in their efforts to construct molecules.

Using a process called asymmetric organocatalysis, MacMillan and List’s toolkit now makes it easier to produce asymmetric molecules — chemicals that exist in two versions where, like our human hands, one is a mirror image of the other. Their pioneering process has paved the way for discovering new drugs and even making molecules that can capture light in solar cells. Chemistry also is made more environmentally friendly because of their innovation. 

MacMillan was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2018, and he became a fellow of the Royal Society and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012. He is the co-founder of Chiromics LLC, Penn PhD LLC, Dexterity Pharma LLC and Antenna Bio LLC — companies that focus on new strategies and screening techniques to identify druglike molecules. 

Q&A with David W.C. MacMillan

Renowned researcher and entrepreneur David W.C. MacMillan, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University who shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his groundbreaking

Sequencing centre in St. Louis, Missouri

McDonnell Genome Institute (The Elizabeth H. and James S. McDonnell III Genome Institute) at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, is one of three NIH funded large-scale sequencing centers in the United States. Affiliated with Washington University School of Medicine and the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, the McDonnell Genome Institute is creating, testing and implementing new approaches to the study of genomics with the goal of understanding human health and disease, as well as evolution and the biology of other organisms.

History

Founded in 1993, the McDonnell Genome Institute, formerly the Genome Sequencing Center and The Genome Institute, began as a key player in the Human Genome Project, ultimately contributing more than 25 percent of the finished sequence. Following completion of the working draft of the human genome in 2000, and the finished human genome sequence in 2003, McDonnell Genome Institute turned its sequencing and analysis skills to determining the genomes of many other organisms in order to provide the first reference sequences for these species. In 2014, civic leaders and longtime philanthropists Elizabeth H. and James S. McDonnell III pledged $25 million to The Genome Institute, which was renamed the Elizabeth H. and James S. McDonnell III Genome Institute at Washington University.

Projects

• The Cancer Genome Atlas compares DNA sequences of adult cancer patients and their tumors to identify the genetic changes important to cancer.
• Human Microbiome Project is sequencing the genomes of microbes involved in human health and disease.
• 1000 Genomes Project seeks to catalog the immense human variation written into the genetic code.
• Washington University Cancer Genome Initiative provides for hundreds of tumor and normal sample genomes to be sequenced.
• Pediatric Cancer Genome Project is a collaboration wi