Winner: 2024 Sir Derek Barton Gold Medal
Paul Wender
Stanford University
For extraordinary contributions encompassing groundbreaking advancements in synthesis, photochemistry, organometallic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, drug delivery, and translational science of profound research and societal impact.
Professor Wender’s group is involved in over 30 collaborations using a combination of chemistry, computational design and synthesis to tackle health challenges. These include resistant cancer, resistant infectious diseases, the eradication of HIV/AIDS, prophylactic and therapeutic vaccinations (including vaccinations for HIV), a platform technology to enhance antigen-targeted therapies for cancer and HIV, multiple sclerosis, cell therapies, and other drug delivery technologies. Their research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Gates Foundation, various biotech and pharma companies, and Stanford University, among others.
Biography
Paul Wender is a product of Wilkes College (BS, Bill Stine), Yale University (PhD, Fred Ziegler) and Columbia University (NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Gilbert Stork). He served on the faculty at Harvard University before joining Stanford University, where he is now the Bergstrom Professor of Chemistry and Courtesy Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology in the Medical School. He is a Fellow of the Sarafan Human-Chemistry-Engineering-Medicine (ChEM-H) Institute and a member of the Cancer Institute, the NIH Biotechnology Training Program, the Molecular Pharmacology Training Program, the Stanford Molecular Imaging Scholars Program, and the Center for Molecular Analysis and Design. Professor Wender’s group has made seminal contributions to synthesis, photochemistry, organometallic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, drug delivery, and translational science collectively directed at resistant cancer, infectious diseases, eradication of HIV, prophylactic and therapeutic vaccinations, a platform technology to enhance antigen-targeted therapies for cancer and HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, cell therapies and amongst others drug delivery technologies. His research has been licensed by or led to the founding of several biotech companies. Over the past four decades, Paul has consulted for biotech and pharmaceutical companies on medicinal and process chemistry and has served on science advisory boards for several biotech companies, universities and institutes. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Spanish National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Sciences and the American Association of Arts and Sciences. His research has been recognised with numerous science awards, and his teaching with several teaching and education awards.
Q&A with Professor Paul Wender
How did you first become interested in chemistry?
I had wonderfully permissive and supportive parents who had no problem with my mixing everything I could find around the house and seeing what would happen. This morphed into my actually buying reagents with my allowance, attaching notes to my hydrogen filled balloons and making amazing chemically powered rockets. Many pursuits followed these, but they are perhaps best left for another time.
Tell us about somebody who has inspired or mentored you in your career.
There are too many to name, but certainly my parents, many teachers along the way, my research mentors (Salley, Stine, Ziegler and Stork), my colleagues, my coworkers, my many collaborators and fellow scientists and my wife!
What motivates you?
The creation of new knowledge of societal benefit. Who wouldn’t want to cure an incurable disease or create a better treatment for a range of under-solved therapeutic problems?
What advice would you give to a young person considering a career in chemistry?
Go for it! Science is becoming increasingly molecularized, from molecular anthropology to molecular zoology and most disciplines in between including molecular gastronomy. Many of the solutions to problems of our time and, I dare say, the future can only be addressed by those who see the world through a molecular lens and can design and make molecules that both advance science and are of societal benefit.
Can you tell us about a scientific development on the horizon that you are excited about?
There are many and most are being enabled by the ability to design and make molecules, what I refer to as function-oriented synthesis. Fortunately, chemistry is playing a revolutionary role in advances in energy, the environment, and health care. Molecular diagnostics, i.e. detecting disease at the molecular level long before traditional detection would work, will revolutionize health care. Our ability to understand and even beneficially influence brain function at a molecular level will revolutionize molecular neuroscience and take us to new levels of sentience.
Why is chemistry important?
With the exception of a vacuum, we and all matter that we know of is made up of chemicals. In the last roughly 100 years, we have developed the tools to ‘see" those chemicals and to begin to explore our molecular past and frontier. With these tools, we can now begin to ‘read’ nature’s library and the record of evolutionary advances on our planet over the last roughly four billion years. This "great book", as Antoni Gaudi put it, is now available to be read, and what we have learned and will continue to learn at the molecular level will revolutionize science, the arts and society.
What has been a highlight for you (either personally or in your career)?
Seeing a student 'get it" and watching them succeed in their careers and in life.
How are the chemical sciences making the world a better place?
Only in the last 100 years have we developed the tools to ‘see’ at the molecular level, and with that comes our ability to understand, make and modify molecules in ways that create a better world. I would emphatically add one major point: making the world a better place is a multi-generational challenge, and fortunately, our educational system has enabled us to harvest the lessons of the past and pass them on to the next generation. In essence, progress on problems now can be passed on to our next generation who will hopefully find the ultimate solutions.
Why do you think collaboration and teamwork are important in science?
This is a major point. While many problems are of a mono-disciplinary nature, most require multidisciplinary approaches. Multidisciplinary approaches not only benefit science and facilitate our efforts to solve multidisciplinary problems they greatly enhance the educational process as one has multiple mentors and exposure to multiple types of expertise. My group currently enjoys the benefits of over 30 collaborating groups, which include some of the best and most creative minds on the planet. It’s exciting to work with these people and to share with them in addressing problems of scientific and societal benefit!
What is your favourite element?
Two (E and D) yet to be placed on the periodic table: Enthusiasm and the Determination to succeed!