The multidisciplinary chemical biological research program pursued in my laboratory applies the areas of synthetic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, enzymology, molecular biology, biochemical pharmacology, X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy, molecular modeling and spectroscopy to; 1) the development of new approaches for targeted drug delivery, 2) the design of agents capable of selectively regulating biological processes, 3) the elucidation of basic principles governing biocatalysis and 4) the development and application of chemical biology to nanotechnology.

Rick Wagner visited Taiwan and China July 23-Aug 4, 2008 and gave invited lectures at the Mini-Symposium on Hot Topics in Medicinal Chemistry at National Taiwan University, Taipei, the International Symposium for Chinese Medicinal Chemists, Shanghai and as a seminar speaker in the Dept. Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hongzhou. He had a great time!

Lab awarded new $1.2 million R01 Grant from the NIH entitled, "Self-Assembling Immunotherapeutic Nanorings". The grant will fund research aimed at the development of anti-CD19 nanorings for the imaging and treatment of B-cell leukemias.

Xin Zhou recently attended the Gordon Research Conference on Enzymes, Coenzymes and Metabolic Pathways at the University of New England in Maine, July 13-18. She presented a poster entitled, "Assessing the Role of Tyrosine 190 in the Catalytic Mechanism and Protein Degradation Pathway of Hamster N-Acetyltransferase 2."