Carolyn R. Bertozzi

Carolyn R. Bertozzi
Born	(1966-10-10) October 10, 1966 Boston, Massachusetts
Fields	chemistry
Institutions	Stanford University University of California, Berkeley Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory University of California, San Francisco
Alma mater	Harvard University University of California, Berkeley University of California, San Francisco
Known for	bioorthogonal chemistry
Notable awards	MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1999) ACS Award in Pure Chemistry (2001) Lemelson-MIT Prize (2010) Heinrich Wieland Prize (2012)

External video
“Carolyn Bertozzi: Chemical Glycobiology”, iBiology

Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi (born October 10, 1966) is an American chemist. At Stanford University, she holds the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professorship in the School of Humanities and Sciences;. In addition, Bertozzi is an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and is the former Director of the Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience research center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She received a MacArthur "genius" award at age 33, making her one of the younger scientists to receive this award. In 2010 she was the first woman to receive the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Prize faculty award. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, and the Institute of Medicine. In 2014, it was announced that Bertozzi would lead ACS Central Science, the American Chemical Society's first peer-reviewed open access journal that offers all content freely to the public.

Life and career

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Bertozzi received her A.B. summa cum laude in chemistry from Harvard University, where she worked with Professor Joe Grabowski on the design and construction of a photoacoustic calorimeter. While an undergraduate, she played in various bands, including one with future Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello. After graduating she worked briefly at Bell Labs with Chris Chidsey and at Massachusetts General Hospital. Bertozzi is the daughter of physicist William Bertozzi and the younger sister of UCLA mathematician Andrea Bertozzi.

Bertozzi completed her Ph.D. in Chemistry at UC Berkeley in 1993 with Professor Mark Bednarski, working on the chemical synthesis of oligosaccharide analogs. She then was a postdoctoral fellow at UCSF with Professor Steven Rosen, where she studied the activity of endothelial oligosaccharides in promoting cell adhesion at inflammation sites. She was able to modify the protein and sugar molecules in the walls of living cells so that the cells do not reject foreign materials such as medical implants. Bertozzi joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1996. She has been an investigator with HHMI since 2000.

Bertozzi studies the glycobiology underlying diseases such as cancer, inflammatory disorders such as arthritis, and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis. In particular, Bertozzi has advanced understanding of cell surface oligosaccharides involved in cell recognition and inter-cellular communication. Bertozzi is credited for developing the field of bioorthogonal chemistry which employs a bioorthogonal chemical reporters, such as the azide to label biomolecules within living systems. Her lab has also developed tools for research, including chemical tools for studying glycans in living systems and more recently nanotechnologies for probing biological systems.

In addition to her academic work, Bertozzi works actively with biotechnology start-ups. She has served on the research advisory board of GlaxoSmithKline, and has a startup of her own, Redwood Bioscience of Emeryville, California. Several of the technologies developed in her lab have been adapted for commercial use.

Awards and honors

Carolyn Bertozzi, receiving the Emanuel Merck Lectureship in 2011

• Phi Beta Kappa (1987)
• Beckman Young Investigators Award (1998)
• Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award of the American Chemical Society (1999)
• MacArthur Fellowship (1999)
• Berkeley's Distinguished Teaching Award (2001)
• ACS Award in Pure Chemistry (2001)
• Donald Sterling Noyce Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2001)
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2002)
• Irving Sigal Young Investigator Award of the Protein Society (2002)
• Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2003)
• Agnes Fay Morgan Research Award of Iota Sigma Pi (2004)
• Havinga Medal, Univ. Leiden (2005)
• Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2005)
• Ernst Schering Prize (2007)
• Willard Gibbs Award (2008)
• Lemelson-MIT Prize (2010)
• Merck Academic Development Program Award
• Glaxo Wellcome Scholars' Award
• Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering
• Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award
• Horace S. Isbell Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry
• Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship
• Emanuel Merck Lectureship (2011)
• GLBT Scientist of the Year Award (2007) - from the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals
• Honorary Doctorate of Science from Brown University (2012)
• Heinrich Wieland Prize 2012 (2012)