The Department of Chemistry is pleased to announce that Dr. Raymond Moellering will join the faculty an Assistant Professor during the summer of 2014. Ray is an organic chemist and chemical biologist. He earned BS degrees in Chemistry and Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics from the University of Arizona in 2005. He then pursued graduate studies in Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, where he worked with Gregory Verdine as a Centennial Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research. Ray’s doctoral research focused on the development and application of novel peptidomimetic technologies to target intracellular protein‒protein interactions involved in cancer pathogenesis. Upon completion of his PhD, he moved to the Department of Chemical Physiology at The Scripps Research Institute to perform postdoctoral research as an HHMI Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow with Benjamin Cravatt. While at TSRI, Ray employed quantitative metabolomic and proteomic platforms to study novel metabolic pathways in (patho) physiologic contexts. This work led to the development of cancer‒specific imaging reagents, characterization of novel metabolic pathways involved in cancer cell communication, and the discovery of a new protein post‒translational modification integrating core metabolism with numerous cell signaling pathways.
Ray’s research program at Chicago will focus on the burgeoning field of chemoproteomics with the goal to discover, characterize and selectively modulate protein‒ligand and protein‒ protein interactions in normal and diseased biological settings. Specific research areas of interest include: the role of reactive metabolite driven protein modifications in the regulation of metabolic homeostasis, particularly within the contexts of aging, metabolic disease and cancer; development of chemoproteomic platforms to discover, map and therapeutically target protein‒ligand and protein‒protein interaction networks in native cellular environments; synthesis of modified peptide and protein therapeutic agents to expand the druggable proteome. These research interests combine several traditional disciplines, including synthetic chemistry, biochemistry, cell biology, proteomics and metabolomics and ultimately aim to discover novel pathways and strategies for the development of next--‐generation therapeutics.