Chemistry Seminar on 'Genetic Code Engineering' on Nov. 9

photo submitted

Jiantao Guo

Jiantao Guo of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will give a virtual seminar titled "Genetic code engineering for biochemical and synthetic biology applications" on Zoom from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Central on Monday, Nov. 9. The talk is free and open to the public.

Guo obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees in organic chemistry from Nankai University (China) with professor Jin-Pei Cheng and his Ph.D. degree from Michigan State University with professor John W. Frost. He pursued postdoctoral studies with professor Peter G. Schultz at the Scripps Research Institute before joining the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as an assistant professor in 2010. Guo is currently an associate professor of chemistry at UNL. He is also the associate director of the Nebraska Center for Integrated Biomolecular Communication (NCIBC). His research is mainly at the interface of chemistry and biology, focusing on chemical biology tools, protein engineering, and enzyme catalysis. He was a recipient of the NSF Career Award in 2015 and the Nebraska Outstanding Research and Creativity Award in 2017.

The goal of Guo's research is to reprogram genetic code so that unnatural building blocks and regulatory elements can be readily introduced into the biological system. In this seminar, Guo will discuss the reassignment of nonsense codons for chemical biology applications through site-specific incorporation of useful biophysical probes or unique chemical handles into proteins in live cells. He will also present a relative new application of genetic code engineering in vaccine development.

To attend the seminar, please visit the Zoom link.
Meeting ID: 878 2183 4013
Passcode: Fall@2020