Chemical Biology
Chemical biology combines the rigor and quantitative aspects of traditional chemistry and biochemistry programs with the excitement and medical relevance of modern molecular, cellular, organismic, and human biology. Internationally recognized as a vital interdisciplinary field, it offers an exciting research direction for bright undergraduates.
Increasingly, many biological problems demand molecular and quantitative answers that can only be supplied by tools and approaches derived from chemistry, such as single-molecule measurements, single-cell imaging, and the use of exogenous molecules to precisely modulate cellular components.
Chemical Biology Faculty
Dan Kahne
kahne@chemistry.harvard.eduDepartment Chair
Higgins Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Laboratory Manager/Administrator: Michael Quinn Coordinator: Melissa LeGrand The Kahne Lab is interested in the problem of antibiotic resistance. To develop new approaches to treat resistant bacterial infections, we focus on the protein machines that...
Adam Cohen
cohen@chemistry.harvard.eduJohn P. Reardon Jr. Professor of Chemistry & Chemical Biology and of Physics
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Laboratory Manager: Hillary Piccerillo Adam Cohen works at the interface of physics, chemistry and biology. His lab develops new physical tools to study molecules and cells. The Cohen Lab developed fluorescent voltage-indicating proteins which enable...
Brian Liau
liau@chemistry.harvard.eduMorris Kahn Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Laboratory Manager/Administrator: Ines Santos The Liau Lab is developing chemical approaches to illuminate molecular mechanisms of gene regulation, while exploring the promise of chromatin regulators as therapeutic targets. We employ chemistry to create...
Christina Woo
cwoo@chemistry.harvard.eduProfessor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Coordinator: Keneisha Murphy The Woo lab draws from the fields of chemical biology, organic synthesis, and mass spectrometry to understand small molecule activity in the proteome. We seek to develop and apply chemical proteomic methods to study the...
Daniel G. Nocera
dnocera@fas.harvard.eduPatterson Rockwood Professor of Energy
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Daniel G. Nocera is the Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy at Harvard University. A descriptive bio of Professor Nocera can be found here.
David R. Liu
liu@chemistry.harvard.eduThomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Laboratory Manager/Administrator: Emily Botelho David R. Liu is the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences at Harvard University, Richard Merkin Professor and director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare...
Emily Balskus
balskus@chemistry.harvard.eduThomas Dudley Cabot Professor of Chemistry
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Laboratory Manager/Administrator: Rhonda Pautler The central goal of research in the Balskus group is to discover, understand, and manipulate microbial metabolism. The vast majority of life on Earth is microbial, and the survival of these organisms in...
Eugene I. Shakhnovich
Shakhnovich@chemistry.harvard.eduRoy G. Gordon Professor of Chemistry
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Laboratory Manager/Administrator: Pattee McGarry The research of Professor Eugene Shakhnovich and his group is directed towards understanding the basic principles of protein folding and structural and dynamical properties of other complex polymer systems...
Gregory Verdine
gregory_verdine@harvard.eduErving Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus
(Not Accepting Graduate Students)
Matthew Shair
shair@chemistry.harvard.eduProfessor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Laboratory Manager/Administrator: Ashley Richardson The Shair lab uses small molecules and cell biology as part of an integrated approach to study the mechanistic basis of human diseases, identify new druggable targets, and develop therapeutics.
Stuart L. Schreiber
stuart_schreiber@harvard.eduMorris Loeb Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Emeritus
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
(Not accepting Graduate Students)
Laboratory Manager/Administrator: Allison Roach Stuart Schreiber's lab studies the science of therapeutics. Researchers in his group rely on human biology to identify therapeutic targets that have been validated prior to testing in humans, and chemistry...
Recent News
Sunny Shi honored with RSC Certificate of Undergraduate Excellence
The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology (CCB) celebrated undergraduate researcher Sunny Shi on June 8, 2026, during the department's Summer Undergraduate Research Community Opening Social, where she was presented with the Royal Society of...
Profile: First rule of a disease fighter: Be curious
It was DNA replication that first captured Isaac Witte’s scientific imagination as a high school student in Overland Park, Kansas. “It’s this orchestration of so many different proteins and molecules that come together to do this core element of life,” he...
New research: Unlocking hidden pocket on a billion‑dollar drug target
For years, a protein inside our cells has quietly powered billions of dollars’ worth of cancer drugs. Now a team of researchers have discovered that this workhorse protein, called cereblon, in addition to its known functions, can also fine‑tune which...
