Rebecca Goss is a bioorganic chemist/chemical biologist with research interests in the biosynthesis of natural products at the chemical and genetic level. Research within the group focuses on natural products with important medicinal properties and in understanding how biosynthetically intriguing motifs within these compounds are assembled. From this vantage point the group harness individual enzymes as convenient tools for organic synthesis, and employ a combination of synthetic chemistry and synthetic biology to harness entire biosynthetic pathways in order to enable expeditious access to libraries of medicinally relevant compounds. These libraries may be used as tools to gain a greater understanding as to how the drug acts at the molecular level within the cell.
Awards and Honours:
2003 Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship (~10 awarded each year across the UK in science)
2007 RSC Meldola Medal (awarded to the most promising UK chemist under the age of 32) particularly “distinguished for excellent contributions at the interface of organic chemistry and molecular biology”
2011 Thieme Chemistry Journal Award
2011 JSP award to participate at the Burgenstock Stereochemistry meeting
2011 Selected as the UK’s under 40 Organic Chemistry delegate for EuCheM’s Young Investigators Workshop
2013 Natural Product Report Emerging Researcher Lectureship
Awarded for our pioneering new approach to natural product analogue generation “Genochemetics”, which marries together Synthetic Biology and Synthetic Chemistry to access new bioactives of medicinal interest. Awarded in subsequent years to scientists at Yale, Harvard and Scripps
2014 ERC consolidator award,
2021 Royal Society Industrial Fellowship
2020 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
2021 Award for Disruptive Innovation, AccelerateHer
2022 Converge Challenge Award: top prize for best Scottish University Spinout
2022 RSC Corday Morgan Medal(awarded to the most meritorious contributions to chemistry, in particular for pioneering the use of enzymatic halogenation/cross-coupling in C-H activation). This is one of the RSC’s most prestigious awards, established in 1949.
2022 Winner of Converge Challenge (Scotland’s top Spinout Competition)
2022 CEFIC: Solvay, selected to join 32 of the best European Chemists https://cefic.org/media-corner/newsroom/renowned-chemistry-professors-and-young-european-scientists-recreate-the-iconic-photo-featuring-curie-and-einstein/
Activities Past and Present:
Secretary to the RSC Bioorganic Group 2005-2011
Elected to the RSC Chemical Biology interface Forum 2009-2011
Elected to the RSC Organic Division Executive 2010-2012
Synthetic Biology to Dial a Molecule coordinator 2013
Associate Editor Chem Soc Rev
Member of the Advisory Editorial Board for RSC Chemical Communications
Member of the Advisory Editorial Board for RSC Natural Product Reports
Career to Date:
Professor in Biomolecular/Organic Chemistry, University of St Andrews: 2018- present
Readership in Biomolecular/Organic Chemistry, University of St Andrews: September 2012 – July 2018
Readership in Organic Chemistry, University of East Anglia: January 2012 – September 2012
Senior Lectureship, School of Chemistry, University of East Anglia: December 2010 – January 2012
Lectureship, School of Chemistry, University of East Anglia: July 2005-2010 (Maternity break 2008)
Lectureship, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of Exeter: October 2003-June 2005 (Closure of Chemistry in Exeter)
One-Year Teaching Fellowship, School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham: October 2002-September 2003
Post Doctoral Research Associate, Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Professors J. Staunton (FRS) and P. F. Leadlay (FRS): 2001-2002
Education
PhD, University of Durham
October 1997-October 2001
Degree Chemistry BSc Hons., Hatfield College, University of Durham
First year joint Biology and Chemistry (Awarded June 1997)