International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics - Call for Papers: Celebrating Professor George Barany's Half Century in Science
The International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics calls for contributions to a new special issue celebrating half a century in science of Professor George Barany.
Contributions to the issue will include topics related to Professor Barany's broad interests in peptide and protein science, and in organosulfur chemistry. This can include original research papers or reviews on the chemistry, biology, and medicinal chemistry of peptides and proteins, covering design, synthesis, structure, folding and analysis, and allied fields. Contributions on topics at the intersection of organosulfur chemistry and peptide and protein science are particularly encouraged, including areas such as novel protecting groups for cysteine and methods for the creation of one or more disulfide or polysulfide bridges in peptides and proteins.
Keywords: Solid-phase peptide synthesis, orthogonal protecting group strategies, organosulfur chemistry, cysteine, disulfide bridges, trisulfide bridges, protein folding, polymeric supports for solid-phase peptide synthesis, polymer-supported reagents
Guest Editors
Fernando Albericio, PhD, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
Fernando Albericio belongs to the first generation of post-doctoral fellow alumni of the George Barany laboratory in Minnesota. Currently, he is Research Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) and Emeritus Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Barcelona (Spain), where he conducted a significant part of his scientific career.
His primary research interests cover practically all aspects of peptide synthetic methodology and the synthesis of peptides and small molecules with therapeutic activities (cancer and infectious diseases). Most recently, he has been working on greening the solid-phase peptide synthesis processes. He has published over 1000 scientific articles and graduated more than 75 PhD students.
Carrie Haskell-Luevano, PhD, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States of America
Carrie Haskell-Luevano earned her BS degree in Chemistry from the California State University of Fresno (1990) and her Ph.D. degree in Chemistry (1995) at the University of Arizona. She pursued her postdoctoral studies (1995-1998) at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor MI) and Vollum Institute (Portland OR) funded by an NRSA NIH postdoctoral fellowship. In 1998 Dr. Haskell-Luevano started her independent research program at the University of Florida Department of Medicinal Chemistry. In 2011 Dr. Haskell-Luevano was recruited to join the University of Minnesota Department of Medicinal Chemistry as Professor and the inaugural Philip S. Portoghese Endowed Chair in Chemical Neuroscience as well as a University of Minnesota Institute for Translational Neuroscience Science Scholar. Dr. Haskell-Luevano’s research focuses upon GPCRs, the neuroendocrine regulation of pain (opioid receptors), food intake, and energy homeostasis (melanocortin receptors). Research approaches utilize a variety of multidisciplinary techniques including peptide, small molecule, and combinatorial chemistry synthesis, cell-based assays, chemical biology, neuromolecular pharmacology, working with knock out mice, and neuroscience.
Maria Kempe, PhD, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Maria Kempe received her MS degree in Chemical Engineering in 1988 and her PhD in Pure and Applied Biochemistry in 1995, both from Lund University, Sweden. Her PhD work, carried out under the guidance of Professor Klaus Mosbach, focused on molecularly imprinted polymers. After the PhD studies, she joined the laboratory of Professor George Barany at the University of Minnesota, where she carried out postdoctoral studies for two years on a Hans Werthén fellowship. During this time, she invented the CLEAR solid-phase synthesis support. After returning to Lund University, she started her independent research in 1997, first at Kemicentrum, and from 2001 at the Faculty of Medicine. In 2001 she received the prestigious award “Future Research Leaders” from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research. Her research is carried out at the interface of medicine, chemistry, nanotechnology, and materials science, focusing on developing novel materials and technologies for nanomedicine and other applications.
Svetlana Mojsov, PhD, Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
Svetlana Mojsov received her undergraduate education at Belgrade University, with a major in physical chemistry. She started her graduate studies in 1972 at The Rockefeller University, where she was mentored by Bruce Merrifield and shared an office with fellow graduate student George Barany. Her Ph.D. thesis in 1978 reported the first solid-phase synthesis of the peptide hormone glucagon, which she was able to crystalize. After several more years in the Merrifield lab improving and optimizing the glucagon synthesis and initiating structure-function studies, she moved to the Endocrine Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where she was also the Director of the Howard Hughes Peptide Synthesis Core Facility. In the 1980’s, Dr. Mojsov discovered the active form of the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and established that it was an incretin, i.e., a gut peptide that stimulates insulin release from the pancreas. This work led to the development of Victoza, Ozempic, and Rybelsus for Type 2 diabetes and Saxenda and Wegovy for weight loss. She returned to The Rockefeller University in 1990 and was associated with the immunology laboratory of Ralph Steinman. Her current research is focused on a unique G-protein coupled receptor with specificity towards both GLP-1 and glucagon.
Robert P. Hammer, PhD, Bicycle Therapeutics, Cambridge, MA, United States of America
Robert P. Hammer received his B.S. in Chemistry with distinction from the University of Illinois-Urbana in 1985. He then attended graduate school at the University of Minnesota where he worked under the direction of Professor George Barany on new methods for solid-phase peptide synthesis. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1990, Dr. Hammer worked at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland on the synthesis and biophysical characterization of hexose-based nucleic acids. He joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at Louisiana State University in 1992 where he progressed through the ranks to Full Professor and held the title of William A. Pryor Professor of Chemistry. In 2008 Dr. Hammer moved to industry where he has held a number of positions including at Ra Pharmaceuticals/UCB where he helped co-invent and develop the peptide drug zilucoplan that was recently appoved for treatment of the rare neuromuscular autoimmune disease myasthenia gravis. He is currently Associate Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Bicycle Therapeutics. His research interests are in the organic and medicinal chemistry of peptides and oligonucleotides.
