People: MIT Chemistry Professor Sharpless Assumes Scripps Clinic's New W.M. Keck Chair

The Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, Calif. has announced the appointment of K. Barry Sharpless to the new W.M. Keck Foundation Chair in Chemistry. The position was created earlier this year with a $2.9 million award from the Los Angeles-based Keck Foundation.

Sharpless, a chemist and expert in asymmetric synthesis and metal-based catalysis, is currently the Arthur C. Cope Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He will begin in his new post at Scripps in the spring of next year. Once there, he and his team of about 15 researchers will join four other senior Scripps faculty members in research on the design and synthesis of molecules to combat disease. The research project will include the synthesis of biologically active natural compounds as well as synthetic derivatives that have potential medical applications in allergy, diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, cancer, and viral...