HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

Chemistry Department Name Change Will Recognize Chemical Biology

The strengthening bonds between chemistry and biology, and the emergence of a new field known as chemical biology, have prompted the Department of Chemistry to seek a name change.

Last month, members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) voted to change the unit's name to the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology as of July 1.

"Much of the future of chemistry lies in its integration with other fields," said Chemistry Professor Gregory Verdine.

According to David Evans, the Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Chemistry, more than half the research activities now being pursued within Harvard's Chemistry Department lie at the "chemistry-biology interface," and the curriculum increasingly reflects this relationship.

In addition, a newly created chemical biology subgroup includes faculty from both Chemistry and the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Harvard faculty are among the originators of chemical biology, Verdine noted.

"This field is viewed as having been born at Harvard, with its roots in work by Konrad Bloch (Higgins Professor of Biochemistry Emeritus), Frank Westheimer (Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry Emeritus), and Jeremy Knowles (Amory Houghton Professor of Chemistry and Dean of the FAS)," he said.

"What distinguishes chemical biology from the more traditional disciplines of chemistry and biology is its emphasis on integrating a wider series of experimental techniques, ranging from synthetic organic chemistry, to biochemistry, to structural, molecular, and cellular biology," Verdine explained. "Chemical biology cuts a wide swath across a series of disciplines and uses aspects of them together to address complex problems in the life sciences."