Packard Fellowship Awarded to UCSB Chemist

Jeffrey W. Bode, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has been awarded a prestigious Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering.

The Packard Foundation Fellowship Advisory Panel, made up of distinguished scientists and engineers, invites the presidents of 50 leading research universities to nominate two young professors each from their institutions every year. This year the panel selected 20 fellows from 100 candidates. Candidates must be young faculty members in the first three years of their academic careers. The intent of the fellowship program is to provide support for unusually creative researchers early in their careers. The fellowship of $625,000, paid over five years, may be used for any reasonable research expenditure.

Bode has developed a versatile way to connect small protein snippets called peptides that are made of amino acids. The result could lead to a surge in the creation of protein-based drug therapies. "Our chemical process allows us to synthetically link pieces that would be difficult using other methods such as chemical synthesis or biotechnological processes," said Bode. "It is called chemical ligation –– being able to specifically link two peptides without using chemical reagents."

"Jeff Bode is one of the most innovative and dedicated young scientists in the United States today," said Alec Wodtke, chair of UCSB's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. "This award will provide valuable support to allow him to explore a fascinating area of very important chemistry that he has personally pioneered: reactions without reagents, catalysts, or byproducts, carried out using water as a solvent. It is this kind of new ‘intelligent chemistry' that will lead us to enhanced harmony between our environment and the chemical industry."

Over the past 18 years, the Packard Fellowship Program has awarded 383 fellowships, totaling over $220 million, to faculty members at 52 top national universities. It is among the nation's largest non-governmental program designed to seek out and reward the pursuit of scientific discovery with "no strings attached" support. The program funds Fellows' research in a broad range of disciplines, including physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, astronomy, computer science, earth science, ocean science, and all branches of engineering.