Professor Frances Arnold, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, USA, has been awarded this year’s Emanuel Merck Lectureship. The award recognizes globally renowned scientists who have made superb contributions to chemical and pharmaceutical research. Arnold is awarded for her work in the field of directed evolution.

The prize, which is worth € 10,000, was presented on May 27, 2013 at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, where Arnold presented a special public lecture, entitled “Design by Evolution: Rewriting the Code of Life”. On the two following days, Arnold will hold further lectures at the TU Darmstadt and at Merck.

Frances Arnold studied mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University, USA, and received her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of California (UC), Berkeley, USA, in 1985. She performed post-doctoral research at UC Berkeley and Caltech, USA. She is currently the Dick and Barbara Dickinson Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biochemistry at Caltech.

Her research focuses on evolution of biological systems, especially enzymes, in the laboratory. She aims to use methods of laboratory evolution to generate novel and useful enzymes to solve human problems for applications in medicine and alternative energy.

In a recdent interview she talks about the advantages of design by evolution.

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Recent publications by Frances Arnold:

• High-Throughput Screening for Terpene-Synthase-Cyclization Activity and Directed Evolution of a Terpene Synthase,
  Ryan Lauchli, Kersten S. Rabe, Karolina Z. Kalbarczyk, Amulya Tata, Thomas Heel, Rebekah Z. Kitto, Frances H. Arnold,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52(21), 5571–5574.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.201301362
• Olefin Cyclopropanation via Carbene Transfer Catalyzed by Engineered Cytochrome P450 Enzymes,
  P. S. Coelho, E. M. Brustad, A. Kannan, F. H. Arnold,
  Science 2013, 339, 307–310.
  DOI: 10.1126/science.1231434
• Engineered Bacterial Mimics of Human Drug Metabolizing Enzyme CYP2C9,
  Andrea Rentmeister, Tristan R. Brown, Christopher D. Snow, Martina N. Carbone, Frances H. Arnold,
  ChemCatChem 2011, 3(6), 1065–1071.
  DOI: 10.1002/cctc.201000452

Also of interest:

• Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

• Interview with Frances H. Arnold — Design by Evolution,
  Vera Köster,
  ChemViews Magazine 2011, December.
  DOI: 10.1002/chemv.201000143
  Caltech Professor Frances H. Arnold sees laboratory evolution designing biology as solution to human problems
• C. Bertozzi Awarded 2011 Emanuel Merck Lectureship