César de la Fuente

César de la Fuente is a Presidential Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he leads the Machine Biology Group. Previously, he pursued postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and earned a PhD at the University of British Columbia (UBC). His research goal is to use the power of machines to accelerate discoveries in biology and medicine.

Dirk Trauner

Dirk Trauner was born and raised in Linz, Austria, studied biology and chemistry at the University of Vienna, and received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the Free University, Berlin. He then pursued graduate studies in chemistry under the direction of Prof. Johann Mulzer, with whom he moved to the University of Frankfurt and then back to Vienna where he obtained his Ph.D.

Organic Chemistry Seminar Dr. John Wai, WuXi AppTec

Synthesis of newly designed molecules continues to be a serious rate limiting step in drug discovery. Accelerating this RTS means investing only in synthetic sequences that are more likely to work. Structural diversifications, different substitution patterns, unique heterocyclic systems and arrays of functionalities etc. can lead to unexpected reactivities. Retrospective analyses of our collection of interesting observations with quantum mechanics provided tremendous insight on why certain substrates and reactions behaved differently.