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Scott UlrichAssociate Professor and ChairChemistry
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We are currently developing inhibitors of a bacterial metalloenzyme called LuxS. LuxS is the last enzyme in a biosynthetic pathway that makes bacterial signaling molecules called autoinducers. Autoinducers are used by bacteria to sense their local population in a phenomenon called quorum sensing. Quorum sensing triggers behavioral changes in bacteria including virulence in such species as Salmonella, pathogenic E. coli, Vibrio cholera, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Genetic deletion of LuxS renders many pathogens less harmful. Thus, blocking production of quorum sensing signals by chemical inhibition of LuxS may be a way to treat infections without killing the offending bacteria, lessening the likelihood of drug resistance.
We are also interested in cloning enzymes with that catalyze reactions that are applicable for organic synthesis and environmental remediation. We are currently investigating a class of enzymes that cleave the urethane (carbamate) functional group for degradtion of ethyl carbamate (urethane), the many carbamate-based pesticides, and cleavage of carbamate protecting groups for organic synthesis.
For each project students often learn various techniques such as organic synthesis, basic molecular biology, protein expression/purification, enzymology, and sometimes we dabble in microbiology.
I attended Temple University for an undergraduate degree in chemistry where I worked with Professor Grant Krow and his graduate student Osbert Cheung on a project to synthesize analogs of the natural product epibatidine, an extraordinarily toxic bicyclic amine found in the skin of the brightly colored south american tree frog Epipedobates tricolor.
After Temple, I entered the chemistry graduate program at Princeton where I joined the research group of Kevan Shokat. Kevan's work is considered the vanguard of "chemical biology"; the application of organic synthesis to biological problems. My project involved engineering protein kinases to use unnatural nucelotides as phosphodonors instead of ATP in order to identify kinase substrates.
In the summer of 2002 I joined the chemistry department at Ithaca College, where I teach the first and second organic chemistry lab courses, general education courses in both environmental chemistry and a hybrid medicinal chemistry/genetics/nutrition course, the first semester of organic chemistry, the first semester of biochemistry, an upper level elective in bio-organic chemistry and part of the capstone course in biochemistry. I supervise between three and five research students on independent projects in organic, medicinal, and biological chemistry. I am always looking for motivated, strong students to work with.
Outside of the classroom and lab I am really into rock climbing and skiing.
Ulrich SM "Chemistry and Roles of Protein Kinases and Dephosphorylases" 2007 Wiley Encyclopedia of Chemical Biology pdf
KrennHrubec K, Marshal B, Hedglin M, Verdin E and Ulrich SM. "Design and Evaluation of Linkerless Hydroxamic Acids and Selective HDAC8 Inhibitors" 2007 March 30 Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters pdf
By Ithaca College undergraduates:
