Christopher T. Walsh

Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Harvard Medical School
Armenise Building, Room 616
200 Longwood Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
Tel: (617) 432-1715
Fax: (617) 432-0438
Email: christopher_walsh@hms.harvard.edu
Web Page: The T. Walsh Lab Page
14 postdoctoral fellows, 6 graduate students

The laboratory has focused on biological catalysis and enzymatic reaction mechanisms. We use a variety of approaches centered around protein biochemistry to decipher the molecular logic of enzymes. Our particular focus at present is in the enzymes that make natural products of therapeutic interest, including polyketides, nonribosomal peptides, and hybrid PK-NRP structures. We study the enzymatic synthesis of dedicated monomers for the enzymatic assembly lines, the organization and function of the assembly line machinery, and enzymes involved in maturation and tailoring steps after release of nascent products from the assembly lines. We study siderophores, antibiotics, immunosupressants and antitumor drug biosynthesis.

References:

• Christopher Walsh, Sylvie Garneau, Greg Gatto [2005] Protein Posttranslational Modifications: The Chemistry of Proteome Diversifications. Angew Chemie, Int Ed, 44, 7342-7372.
• Frederic Vaillancourt, Ellen yeh, David Vosburg, Sarah O’Connor, Christopher Walsh [2005] Cryptic chlorination by non-heme Fe2+ enzyme during cyclopropyl amino acid biosynthesis. Nature, 436, 1191-1195.
• Michael Fischbach, Hening Lin, David Liu, Christopher Walsh [2006] How pathogenic bacteria evade mammalian sabotage in the battle for iron. Nature Chemical Biology, 2, 132-138.