Biography

University of Illinois Chicago - Chemistry

Senior Research Scientist at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (institutional equivalent of professor)
Research
Gabriel
Fenteany
Szeged, Csongrád, Hungary
Throughout my career, my research has been at the interface of chemistry and biology. My main focus has been the application of the approaches of chemical biology to cell biology. Our efforts have resulted in the discovery of a range of novel small-molecule modulators of basic biological processes of medical significance, determination of their molecular targets and mechanisms of action, revealing new functions of those targets in biology, and dissection of cellular processes through multi-methodological approaches. An overarching theme of my whole research career has been the question of how specific molecular recognition and interaction events, one upon on another, ultimately give rise to higher-order function at the cellular level. Such interests have led me to study the dynamics of large protein complexes that are challenging to investigate but nevertheless amenable to dissection into smaller-scale contributing protein–protein interactions with chemical thinking and tools, from proteasome structure–function to cytoskeletal dynamics that generate various mechanical forces and now to my present work on ubiquitination and post-translational modification-dependent protein complex dynamics. A tremendous salutary benefit of such approaches is that the tools themselves can have immediate new therapeutic potential. I have mentored 8 post-doctoral fellows, 14 Ph.D. students, 6 master’s students, 18 undergraduates, two technicians, and two high school scholars. I have been the principal investigator on major grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society and other funding organizations.