Chemistry Department Faculty
Jianmin Gao
Professor of Chemistry
Jianmin Gao
Ph.D.
Contact
Merkert Center 203
Telephone: 617-552-0326
Email: jianmin.gao@bc.edu
ORCID 0000-0001-9341-1287
Education
- Ph.D., Stanford University
Research Interests
Synthetic probes of membrane lipids and their modifications pertinent to disease.
Research
The Gao lab works in the general areas of organic chemistry and chemical biology. Specifically, we are interested in understanding and ultimately gaining control over the functions of cell membranes. As a defining feature of a cell, the cell membrane hosts close to one third of the entire proteome and mediates numerous signaling pathways. Our lab uses organic synthesis to create novel peptides and peptidomimetics that functionally mimic natural membrane proteins, including channel formers and lipid-targeting proteins. Research activities as such allow us to elucidate new chemical principles of protein-membrane interactions. Synthetic molecules that are active on biomembranes may also serve as novel antibiotics and tumor imaging agents.
Representative Key Publications:
- Sam Cambray and Jianmin Gao*, “Versatile Conjugation Chemistries of ortho-Boronyl Aryl Ketones and Aldehydes,” Acc. Chem. Res., 2018, 51, 2198-206.
- Kelly A. McCarthy, Michael A. Kelly, Kaicheng Li, Samantha Cambray, Azade Hosseini, Tim van Opijnen, and Jianmin Gao*, “Phage display of dynamic covalent binding motifs enables facile development of targeted antibiotics,” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2018, 140, 6137-45.
- Anupam Bandyopadhyay,# Samantha Cambray,# and Jianmin Gao*, “Fast diazaborine formation of semicarbazide enables facile labeling of bacterial pathogens,” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139, 871-8.
- Anupam Bandyopadhyay, Kelly A. McCarthy, Michael A. Kelly and Jianmin Gao*, “Targeting Bacteria via Iminoboronate Chemistry of Amine-Presenting Lipids,” Nat. Commun., 2015, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7561.