Emma King-Smith, Ph.D.
Doctoral Thesis: Application of Oxygenase Enzymes for Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of Natural Products & Exploration of α-Ketoglutarate Sequence Space for Non-Canonical Amino Acid Promiscuity
Description of Research Focus: "My Ph.D. focus has centered around the total synthesis of natural products by combining the unrivaled stereo- and regioselectivity of enzymatic oxidations with the versatility of traditional and state-of-the-art chemical paradigms."
Undergraduate Institution: University of California, Berkeley
Noteworthy Publications: Divergent Synthesis of Complex Diterpenes via a Hybrid Oxidative Approach, Science (2020); Merging Chemoenzymatic and Radical Based Retrosynthetic Logic for Rapid and Modular Synthesis of Oxidized Meroterpenoids, Nature Chemistry (2020); Total Synthesis of Tambromycin by Combining Chemocatalystic and Biocatalytic C-H Functionalization, Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2018); Applications of Oxygenases in the Chemoenzymatic Total Synthesis of Complex Natural Products, Biochemistry (2018); A Dual C-H Functionalization Strategy for the Total Synthesis of Tambromycin, Strategies and Tactics in Organic Synthesis (2019)
Honors & Awards: Division of Organic Chemistry Graduate Student Research Symposium Award Recipient (2020); Genentech Chemical Research Symposium Award Recipient (2020); Joseph B. Scheller & Rita P. Scheller Charitable Foundation Graduate Student Fellowship (2019); Department of Chemistry Seminar Series, Best Graduate Student Presentation (2018)
Looking Back: "The best decision of my career was accepting Scripps Florida's offer for graduate studies. Although impossible to condense the knowledge, love, and mentorship I received over the 5 years at Scripps into a few sentences, the intellectual challenge of pursuing total synthesis under the mentorship of Hans remains the highlight of my joyous time at Scripps. Thank you to my graduate committee, my lab, and my friends from the Kodadek lab for helping me find the discipline of "making your own luck through hard work" and the confidence to trust your own intellectual curiosity, wherever it may lead you. These foundational blocks continue to serve me well as I pursue research in other fields."
Next Steps: "Post Scripps, I began postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge, UK with Dr. Alpha Lee. My research is still heavily centered around synthetic chemistry, but instead of synthesizing new and interesting molecules, I now work on developing machine learning algorithms that can be of use to the synthetic chemistry community, specifically in the areas of yield and regiochemical prediction. My long-term plan is to enter the pharmaceutical industry as a specialist in both machine learning and synthetic chemistry."
Be sure to join us at 10 a.m. PDT on Friday, May 20 for our Commencement Ceremony Livestream! King-Smith's advisor and mentor, Prof. Hans Renata, will deliver a few words about her graduate experience, and viewers can learn about our 47 other 2022 graduates, who are now setting out to build careers that will profoundly impact the future of biomedical research.
