Sean Brady named 2007 Beckman Young investigator
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Chemical biologist Sean Brady, head of Rockefeller University’s Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules, is one of this year’s Beckman Young Investigators. One of 16 awardees this year, Brady was chosen by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation for his work in the discovery and study of naturally occurring small molecules and their therapeutic potential.
Brady, who joined the university in September 2006 as assistant professor, focuses on three main research goals. First, he is developing new strategies for the identification, study and therapeutic harnessing of biosynthetic gene clusters that exist in uncultured — and thus previously inaccessible — soil microbes. The second focus of the Brady lab is the use of bioinformatics to identify gene clusters in sequenced pathogenic bacteria that enable the mechanisms of infection and propagation, with the aim of developing therapeutic tools that can interrupt those mechanisms and perhaps provide an effective weapon against drug-resistant bacteria. The final area of Brady’s research is the development of new strategies for visualizing and detecting small molecules in vivo.
The Beckman Foundation provides grants to nonprofit research institutions to promote research in chemistry and the life sciences, particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments and materials that open new avenues of scientific research. The Beckman Young Investigators Award, which comes with a grant of approximately $300,000, acknowledges the contributions of tenure-track scientists in the early stage of their research careers. Four other Rockefeller scientists have been recipients of the award since it was established in 1991.
