# Chemical Biology ## expand\_more 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 ](/people/dan-kahne) Department 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... ![Professor Dan Kahne](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/chemistry/files/dan_kahne_0.jpg?itok=qGxM9qXR) [### Adam Cohen ](/people/adam-cohen) John 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... ![adam_cohen-sm.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/chemistry/files/adam_cohen-sm.jpg?itok=6uvokuoR) [### Arjun Garapaty ](/people/arjun-garapaty) person [### Brian Liau ](/people/brian-liau) Morris 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... ![Assistant Professor Brian Liau](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/chemistry/files/brian_liau_square.jpg?itok=DmdZNkIy) [### Christina Woo ](/people/christina-woo) Professor 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... ![Assistant Professor Christina Woo](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/chemistry/files/christinawoo.jpg?itok=dy4LbhBz) [### Claudia Liu ](/people/claudia-liu) person [### Daniel G. Nocera ](/people/daniel-g-nocera) Patterson 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. ![nocera2.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/chemistry/files/nocera2.jpg?itok=LpCxgzgZ) [### David R. Liu ](/people/david-r-liu) Thomas 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... ![David Liu in Black & White](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-11/DRL%202025%20bw%20headshot%20smaller.jpg?itok=eDJ0f5TU) [### Emily Balskus ](/people/emily-balskus) Thomas 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... ![balskus.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/balskus.jpg?itok=8vwdqKbi) [### Eugene I. Shakhnovich ](/people/eugene-i-shakhnovich) Roy 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... ![shaknovich.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/shaknovich.jpg?itok=S02YEU6e) [### Gregory Verdine ](/people/gregory-verdine) [gregory\_verdine@harvard.edu](mailto:gregory_verdine@harvard.edu)Erving Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus (Not Accepting Graduate Students) ![verdine.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/verdine.jpg?itok=MxmQEewq) [### Irtiza Iram ](/people/irtiza-iram-0) person [### Joshua Pixley ](/people/joshua-pixley) person [### Matthew Shair ](/people/matthew-shair) Professor 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. ![shair.jpeg](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/shair.jpeg?itok=0z1LAbTI) [### Stuart L. Schreiber ](/people/stuart-l-schreiber) [stuart\_schreiber@harvard.edu](mailto:stuart_schreiber@harvard.edu)Morris 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... ![stuart_schreiber.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/stuart_schreiber.jpg?itok=8-4e9qB1) ## Recent News [### Sunny Shi honored with RSC Certificate of Undergraduate Excellence ](/news/2026/06/sunny-shi-honored-rsc-certificate-undergraduate-excellence) June 10, 2026 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... ![Sunny Shi sitting in her Harvard graduation regalia.](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-06/Sunny%20Shi_5055.jpg?itok=wtJGkvKo) [### Profile: First rule of a disease fighter: Be curious ](/news/2026/05/profile-first-rule-disease-fighter-be-curious) May 29, 2026 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... ![Isaac Witte](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-05/Witte-David%20Liu-Broad.png?itok=_ht0FUpd) [### New research: Unlocking hidden pocket on a billion‑dollar drug target ](/news/2026/04/new-research-unlocking-hidden-pocket-billion-dollar-drug-target) April 17, 2026 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... ![Christina Woo](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-04/Woo-Dippon_0.png?itok=-xq9hn_S) [ read more arrow\_circle\_right ](/news)