Alison Rae Hardin Narayan (born 1984) is an American

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

and the William R. Roush assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Additionally, she is a research assistant professor at University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute.

Early life and education

Narayan grew up in Cheboygan,

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

graduating from high school in

Frankenmuth Frankenmuth is a city in Saginaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 4,944 at the 2010 census. The city is surrounded by Frankenmuth Township. Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, which bills itself as "the World's Largest Christ ...

. She completed her B.S. in chemistry at the

in 2006. During her bachelor's degree, she carried out research under the supervision of John P. Wolfe on palladium-catalyzed methodology for the synthesis of substituted

tetrahydrofuran Tetrahydrofuran (THF), or oxolane, is an organic compound with the formula (CH2)4O. The compound is classified as heterocyclic compound, specifically a cyclic ether. It is a colorless, water-miscible organic liquid with low viscosity. It is ma ...

rings. Narayan completed her Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 2011 with Richmond Sarpong at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, with a thesis entitled "''New Reactions and Synthetic Strategies toward Indolizidine Alkaloids and Pallavicinia Diterpenes''". In 2011, Narayan returned to the

as a postdoctoral fellow in David Sherman's lab. During her postdoc, she engineered cytochrome P450 enzymes to perform C-H functionalization in non-native substrates. In 2015, Narayan joined the Department of Chemistry and the

Life Sciences Institute The Life Sciences Institute (LSI) is a collaborative, multidisciplinary research institution located on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It encompasses 27 faculty-led teams from 13 schools and departments throughout U-M. Th ...

at the University of Michigan as an assistant professor.

Research

The Narayan lab focuses on identifying and characterizing enzymes from various microorganisms that can catalyze chemical reactions that are challenging to reproduce synthetically. These biocatalysts can be employed to create various chemicals for pharmaceutical or other purposes.

Awards and honors

Narayan has received numerous awards and honors including: *

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all d ...

C&EN, Talented 12 (2016) * Thieme Chemistry Journals Award (2019) * Cottrell Scholars (2019) *

Sloan Research Fellow The Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation since 1955 to "provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars". This program is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. ...

(2019) * Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2020)

Key publications

* Baker Dockrey, S. A. and Narayan, A. R. H. “Flavin-dependent biocatalysts in synthesis” ''

Tetrahedron In geometry, a tetrahedron (plural: tetrahedra or tetrahedrons), also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, six straight edges, and four vertex corners. The tetrahedron is the simplest of all the o ...

'' 2019 ''(Special Issue on Biocatalysis in Organic Synthesis).'' * Lukowski, A. L.. and Narayan, A. R. H. “Natural voltage-gated sodium channel ligands: Biosynthesis and biology” ''

ChemBioChem ''ChemBioChem'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering chemical biology, synthetic biology, and bio-nanotechnology and published by Wiley-VCH on behalf of Chemistry Europe. The journal publishes communications, full papers, reviews, minire ...

'' 2019 ''(Special Issue: New Talent)''. * Benítez, Attabey Rodríguez; Tweedy, Sara; Dockrey, Summer A. Baker; Lukowski, April L.; Wymore, Troy; Khare, Dheeraj; Brooks L. Charles III; Smith Janet L.; Narayan Alison R.H. (2018): Structural Basis for Selectivity in Flavin-Dependent Monooxygenase-Catalyzed Oxidative Dearomatization. ChemRxiv. Preprint. * Baker Dockrey, S. A.; Doyon, T. J.; Perkins, J. C.; Narayan, A. R. H. “Whole-cell biocatalysis platform for gram-scale oxidative dearomatization of phenols”''Chem. Biol. Drug Des.'' 2018 * Lukowski, A. L.; Ellinwood, D. C.; Hinze, M. E.; DeLuca, R. J.; Du Bois, J.; Hall, S.; Narayan, A. R. H. "C–H hydroxylation in paralytic shellfish toxin biosynthesis" '' J. Am. Chem. Soc.'', 2018, ''140'' (37), 11863–11869 * Chun, S. W.; Hinze, M. E.; Skiba, M. A.; Narayan, A. R. H. "Chemistry of a unique polyketide-like synthase" '' J. Am. Chem. Soc.'' 2018, ''140'', 2430–2433. * Baker Dockrey, S. A.; Lukowski, A. L.; Becker, M. R.; Narayan, A. R. H. “Biocatalytic site- and enantioselective oxidative dearomatization of phenols” '' Nature Chem.'' 2018, ''10'', 119–125. Mentored Key Publications * “Enzymatic Hydroxylation of an Unactivated Methylene C–H Bond Guided by Molecular Dynamics Simulations” ('' Nat. Chem.'' 2015, DOI: 10.1038/nchem.2285) * “Directing Group-Controlled Regioselectivity in an Enzymatic C–H Bond Oxygenation” ('' J. Am. Chem. Soc.'' 2014, DOI: 10.1021/ja5016052) * “Indolizinones as Synthetic Scaffolds: Fundamental Reactivity and the Relay of Stereochemical Information” ('' Org. Biomol. Chem.'' 2012, DOI: 10.1039/clob06423a)

References

External links

Chemical Biology faculty profile
*

Life Sciences Institute faculty profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Narayan, Alison 1984 births University of Michigan faculty University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni 21st-century American chemists Living people Sloan Research Fellows American women scientists American women academics 21st-century American women scientists Chemists from Michigan