The Bioconjugate Chemistry Young Investigator Award, established in 2023*, recognizes an outstanding young researcher who has made a major impact at the interface of synthetic and biological systems. Bioconjugate Chemistry is a peer reviewed journal published by the American Chemical Society. Since 2018, the award has been cosponsored by Bioconjugate Chemistry and PMSE. This year’s recipient is Professor Abhishek Chaterjee from Boston College
Professor Chatterjee was born in India in 1979. He received his B.Sc. (Hons) at Calcutta University in 2001, M.Sc. at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 2003, and Ph.D. at Cornell University in 2009, working with Prof. Tadhg Begley. After a postdoctoral training with Prof. Peter Schultz at The Scripps Research Institute from 2009 to 2013, he joined the Department of Chemistry at Boston College in 2013 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2019, and Professor in 2022.
The Chatterjee group is broadly interested in engineering biology using an interdisciplinary approach to develop enabling new technologies for probing complex biological questions, and to create opportunities for developing next-generation biotherapeutics. A particular focus of the group is the development and application of genetic code expansion technology, which enables the precise introduction of enabling non-natural chemistries into predefined sites of proteins. The research from the Chatterjee group has been recognized by several awards, including the Smith Family Foundation Award, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, and Allen Distinguished Investigator Award.
The award will be presented at the ACS Fall Meeting in Denver, from August 18-22, 2024. Professor Chatterjee will be presenting a lecture as part of the Bioconjugate Chemistry Young Investigator Symposium at the meeting, along with other prominent researchers in the field. Please check the conference program when finalized to verify time and location.