Douglas A. Mitchell is a professor of chemistry at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

. He holds an affiliate appointment in the Department of Microbiology and is a faculty member of the

Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) is ainterdisciplinaryfacility for genomics research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. ThInstitutewas built in 2006 to centralize biotechnology research at the University of Il ...

. His research focuses on the

chemical biology Chemical biology is a scientific discipline between the fields of chemistry and biology. The discipline involves the application of chemical techniques, analysis, and often small molecules produced through synthetic chemistry, to the study and m ...

natural products A natural product is a natural compound or substance produced by a living organism—that is, found in nature. In the broadest sense, natural products include any substance produced by life. Natural products can also be prepared by chemical s ...

. He is known mainly for his work on the biosynthetic enzymology of

ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides Ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs), also known as ribosomal natural products, are a diverse class of natural products of ribosomal origin. Consisting of more than 20 sub-classes, RiPPs are produced by a vari ...

(RiPPs) and genome-guided natural product discovery.

Early life and education

Mitchell was born in western Pennsylvania and obtained his B.S. in chemistry from

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

in 2002. He obtained his PhD in 2006 from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

and worked with

Michael Marletta Michael A. Marletta is an American biochemist. He was born in Rochester, New York, the son of Italian immigrants. He graduated from the State University of New York at Fredonia in 1973 with an A.B. degree in biology and chemistry, and from the Un ...

on the

nitric oxide Nitric oxide (nitrogen oxide, nitrogen monooxide, or nitrogen monoxide) is a colorless gas with the formula . It is one of the principal oxides of nitrogen. Nitric oxide is a free radical: it has an unpaired electron, which is sometimes den ...

-dependent

post-translational modification In molecular biology, post-translational modification (PTM) is the covalent process of changing proteins following protein biosynthesis. PTMs may involve enzymes or occur spontaneously. Proteins are created by ribosomes, which translation (biolog ...

s of proteins. For postdoctoral studies, he worked with Jack Dixon at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

and pursued the study of Streptococcal toxin biosynthesis. In 2009, he began his independent career at the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

as an assistant professor of chemistry. In 2015, he was promoted to associate professor with tenure.

Research interests

Natural products A natural product is a natural compound or substance produced by a living organism—that is, found in nature. In the broadest sense, natural products include any substance produced by life. Natural products can also be prepared by chemical s ...

* Genome-mining *

Antibiotic resistance Antimicrobial resistance (AMR or AR) occurs when microbes evolve mechanisms that protect them from antimicrobials, which are drugs used to treat infections. This resistance affects all classes of microbes, including bacteria (antibiotic resis ...

* Mechanistic enzymology

Notable awards

NIH Director’s New Innovator Award
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Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry The Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry, formerly known as the Paul-Lewis Award in Enzyme Chemistry was established in 1945. Consisting of a gold medal and honorarium, its purpose is to stimulate fundamental research in enzyme chemistry by scientists ...

Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering
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Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award
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National Fresenius Award
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External links

RODEO: For ribosomal natural product discovery

References

Carnegie Mellon University alumni 21st-century American chemists Living people 1980 births {{US-academic-scientist-stub