Brian Bachmann

Brian Bachmann is Stevenson Endowed Chair of Chemistry and Principal Investigator of the Laboratory for Biosynthetic Studies, a multidisciplinary group working on the chemical biology of secondary metabolites. The broad goals of this group are to leverage the evolutionary history of secondary metabolites for the discovery and biosynthesis of new human medicines.

Current emphasis centers on (1) the discovery and mechanistic investigation of new modulators of human chemical biology relevant to anticancer an antibiotic medicine and (2) the biosynthesis and synthetic biology of bioactive secondary metabolites to improve their pharmacological properties for clinical applications. A list of his Vanderbilt publications may be found here.

Prior to arriving at Vanderbilt University, Brian was Director of Chemistry at Ecopia Biosciences, a natural product-genome mining discovery company in Montreal, Quebec. At Vanderbilt, Brian has been a founder and Director of the Biochemistry and Chemical Biology Degree Program, Associate Director of the Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology, and Director of the NIH Chemical Biology Interface Training Grant. Brian has served as a scientific consultant for multiple corporations, and as a fiduciary Board of Directors member at a global corporation. He holds an array of U.S. and international publications and patents.

In the Press

Kurtweil News: The bioretrosynthesis solution.

NIGMS Findings Magazine article: Drugs Deep Down.

Caving for Cures, a short documentary with the LBS and Hazel Barton, produced by the American Museum of Natural History and exhibited in their Hall of Biodiversity in New York. Caving for Cures.

HBO’s VICE News piece on with LBS and the antibiotic crisis.

Chemical and Engineering News: Bacterial Fight Club Produces New Metabolites