Karl Gademann (1972) was educated at ETH Zürich and Harvard University (PhD with Prof. Dr. Dieter Seebach, postdoctoral studies with Prof. Dr. Eric N. Jacobsen, Habilitation associated with Prof. Dr. Erick M. Carreira). He is currently an assistant Professor (tenure-track) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPF Lausanne) and will move to the University of Basel in January 2010. He has published over fifty publications, holds two patents and received several awards including the Latsis Prize, Lilly Lecture Award, the Schläfli award of the Swiss Academy of Sciences, and, most recently, the Liebig Lectureship of the German Chemical Society. He was awarded the European Young Investigator grant related to natural product synthesis research. His research interests range from the isolation and synthesis of natural products to their chemical biology and potential therapeutic applications.
Natural products contain the evolutionarily enshrined wisdom of ages, and only synthetic organic chemistry can unlock their full potential. We are isolating and preparing natural products and derivatives in order to understand and to control biological processes on a molecular level. For example, we are using an chemo ecological approach to the discovery of novel antiplasmodial agents from cyanobacteria, taking advantage of allelopathic compounds produced by phototrophs that target the apicoplast in Plasmodium falciparum. We have identified nostocarboline and aerucyclamide that display potent and selective activity against the malaria parasite. On a second line of research, we are generating antimicrobial surfaces by natural product hybrids. These surfaces could be beneficial in addressing the problem of nosocomial infections related to stents, catheters and implants. A third area under investigation is related to neuritogenic natural products that stimulate neurite outgrowth, which is of significance related to neurodegenerative diseases. Lastly, we are working on small molecules that control protein transport in cells. Anguinomycin C is a natural product that affects nuclear localization of proteins in exposed cell lines.
Selected publications
S. Bonazzi, S. Güttinger, I. Zemp, U. Kutay, K. Gademann
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 8707-8710
J.-Y. Wach, S. Bonazzi, K. Gademann
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 7123-7126
C. Portmann, J. F. Blom, M. Kaiser, R. Brun, F. Jüttner, K. Gademann
J. Nat. Prod. 2008, 71, 1891-1896
Information and contact
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Chemical Synthesis Laboratory, SB-ISIC-LSYNC, BCH 4304 (bat. Chimie UNIL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
http://lsync.epfl.ch
Phone: +41 21 693 93 15
email: karl.gademann@epfl.ch
