University of Minnesota
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12/08/2014

Carlson elected councilor for ACS Biological Division

Professor Erin Carlson has been elected Councilor of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Biological Chemistry. The approximately 7,000 members of this division share the goal of using chemistry to develop a better understanding of biological processes and to harness these processes for the common good. The objectives of the division are to promote knowledge and research in the field of biological chemistry and to advance the relations of this discipline to other branches of science.

As councilor for the Biological Division, Carlson will speak for the members of the division at the national level. She will help to set national policies for the ACS that directly affect the Biological Division constituency, and will act as the voice of the national ACS to her constituency about the greater needs of the ACS as a whole. In this position, Carlson will serve as a vital bridge between national policy and division concerns. Carlson has previously served as the chair of a local ACS Southern Indiana Section.

Carlson received her bachelor's degree in chemistry from St. Olaf College in 2000 and a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005. She started her independent career as an assistant professor of chemistry at Indiana University in 2008. Carlson joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota as an associate professor in the summer of 2014.

Carlson’s work unites tools from chemistry and biology to promote the development and application of new strategies for treatment of bacterial infections and the discovery of efficacious compounds. Her group is pursuing three complementary research directions: 1) design and application of chemical probes for characterization of the cellular targets of existing antibacterial agents; 2) generation of methods for the investigation and inhibition of proteins involved in bacterial development, virulence and antibiotic resistance; and 3) development of strategies to dramatically expand our ability to explore natural product chemical space, with the goal of identifying privileged structures and novel antibacterial agents. To learn more, visit the Carlson Group website.