The Department of Chemistry is happy to welcome Dr. Grace Kenney, who will join the faculty during the upcoming academic year. Kenney received an S.B. in chemistry from MIT, followed by a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2017. At Northwestern, Kenney worked in the lab of Prof. Amy Rosenzweig, conducting research on the biosynthesis, regulation, and transport of the copper-binding natural product methanobactin as an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellow. After leaving Northwestern, Kenney took a postdoctoral position as a Merck Fellow of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation in the laboratory of Prof. Emily Balskus at Harvard University, identifying a novel metalloenzyme family responsible for hydrazino-amino acid production in a range of natural products. Kenney’s independent research program will focus on the study of microbial systems that catalyze new chemistry in the context of microbial heavy-metal resistance, biosynthesis of peptidic natural products via pathways distinct from the well-established ribosomal and non-ribosomal templates, and metal-binding natural products in complex environments like the gut microbiome.
The newly formed Kenney lab will be off and running in January 2024. In the meantime, you can stay connected at the links below!
Lab website: https://www.kenneylab.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kenneylab
Email: g.kenney@pitt.edu