Department of Cell and Molecular Biology and Department of Chemistry, University of California at Berkeley, CA, USA

Heinrich Wieland Prize 2012 for pioneering achievements in chemical biology, particularly the innovative use of bioorthogonal chemistry

Research

Bertozzi has founded the field of bioorthogonal chemistry situated at the intersection between synthetic chemistry and biology. As an innovative breakthrough method, she developed the biosynthesis and use of bioorthogonal labels, unique chemical biomarkers targeting specific macromolecules in vivo. Bertozzi thus identified sugar patterns on the cell surface which are specific to cancer, inflammation, or infection. She paved the way for novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to these diseases and is designing nanomaterials for drug delivery into living cells.

Academic Career

Bertozzi obtained her PhD in chemistry in Berkeley in 1993, followed by postdoctoral work at the University of California in San Francisco. In 1996, she joined the UC Berkeley faculty. In 2000, she became a  Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. She was the Director of The Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience institute at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, from 2006 to 2010.

Selected Honours & Memberships

Ernst Schering Prize (2007), Lemelson-MIT Prize (2010, as the first woman), Heinrich Wieland Prize (2012)
German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Inventors

Additional Activities

• Founder and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the biotech company Redwood Biosciences, which is developing a chemical engineering platform to produce antibody-drug conjugates and other semi-synthetic biotherapeutics
• Research Advisory Board, GlaxoSmithKline
• Co-director UC Berkeley Chemical Biology Graduate Program