Elizabeth S. Sattely is an American

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts Scientific method, scientific research to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, ...

and

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

engineer. She is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineerin

in the Department of Chemical engineering, Chemical Engineering, an

HHMI The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

investigator, and a ChEM-H Faculty Fellow at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Education

Dr. Sattely completed her graduate training at

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J.; ...

with Amir Hoveyda and her postdoctoral studies in

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

with

Christopher T. Walsh Christopher T. Walsh NAS IoM AAA&S AAM is a Hamilton Kuhn professor of biological chemistry and pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on enzymes and enzyme inhibition, and most recently he is focused on the problem of ant ...

, where she worked on natural product

biosynthesis Biosynthesis is a multi-step, enzyme-catalyzed process where substrates are converted into more complex products in living organisms. In biosynthesis, simple compounds are modified, converted into other compounds, or joined to form macromolecules. ...

in bacteria.

Research

Inspired by human reliance on plants and plant-derived molecules for food and medicine, the Sattely laboratory is focused on the discovery and engineering of plant metabolic pathways to make molecules that can enhance human health. These engineering targets include: *

Phytoalexin Phytoalexins are antimicrobial substances, some of which are antioxidative as well. They are defined, not by their having any particular chemical structure or character, but by the fact that they are defensively synthesized ''de novo'' by plants t ...

s *

Etoposide Etoposide, sold under the brand name Vepesid among others, is a chemotherapy medication used for the treatments of a number of types of cancer including testicular cancer, lung cancer, lymphoma, leukemia, neuroblastoma, and ovarian cancer. It is ...

Beyond fundamental research into biosynthesis of molecules important for human health, the Sattely lab also works on metabolites important for plant health, both in the realm of nutrient acquisition and defense response. Research is not only dedicated to molecules within the plant itself, but also to molecules involved in plant-microbe interactions. Examples are: *

Siderophore Siderophores (Greek: "iron carrier") are small, high-affinity iron-chelating compounds that are secreted by microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. They help the organism accumulate iron. Although a widening range of siderophore functions is no ...

s * N-hydroxy pipecolic acid *

Biological nitrogen fixation Nitrogen fixation is a chemical process by which molecular nitrogen (), with a strong triple covalent bond, in the air is converted into ammonia () or related nitrogenous compounds, typically in soil or aquatic systems but also in industry. Atmos ...

Another part of the laboratory involves the study of plant-derived value added small molecules, such as: *

2-Mercaptobenzothiazole 2-Mercaptobenzothiazole is an organosulfur compound with the formula . It is used in the sulfur vulcanization of rubber. Structure The molecule is planar with a C=S double bond, so the name ''mercapto''benzothiazole is a misnomer. It is not a th ...

(MBT) *

Lignin Lignin is a class of complex organic polymers that form key structural materials in the support tissues of most plants. Lignins are particularly important in the formation of cell walls, especially in wood and bark, because they lend rigidity ...

valorization

Awards

Work in the Sattely lab has been recognized by an

NIH The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

New Innovator Award, a DOE Early Career Award, an

-Simons Faculty Scholar Award, a

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

Young Investigator Award, and a AAAS Mason Award for Women in the Chemical Sciences.

Personal life

Elizabeth Sattely is married to Dr.

Michael Fischbach Michael Andrew Fischbach (born November 3, 1980) is an American chemist, microbiologist, and geneticist. He is an associate professor of Bioengineering and ChEM-H Faculty Fellow at Stanford University and a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator. ...

, associate professor of bioengineering at

. Her favorite bacterium is ''

Azospirillum brasilense ''Azospirillum brasilense'' is a well studied, nitrogen-fixing (diazotroph), genetically tractable, Gram-negative, alpha-proteobacterium bacterium, first described in Brazil (in a publication in 1978) by the group of Johanna Döbereiner and the ...

''.Introduction to Dr. Sattely's talk at the Center for Molecular Analysis and Design, 2018 Symposium

Publications

* ''Discovery and engineering of plant chemistry'', 2017

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sattely, Elizabeth Living people American scientists Year of birth missing (living people) American chemical engineers Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences alumni Harvard Medical School alumni Stanford University fellows