Danielle Dube (she/her/hers)

Affiliation: Chemistry, Biochemistry
Norma L. and Roland G. Ware, Jr. Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Chair of the Chemistry Department
I am a chemical biologist who seeks to develop and apply chemical tools to ease the study of sugars that coat the surface of disease-causing bacteria. I teach classes in biochemistry, chemical biology, general chemistry, and drug discovery, and my pedagogical goals are to teach my students how to think about chemistry and how they can contribute to the field in ways that are personally meaningful.

My research focuses on the sugars that coat cells. Sugars cover the surfaces of all of the cells in our bodies, and their structures provide meaningful information about cellular identity. For instance, sugars cover our red blood cells, and their structures are responsible for differentiating between A, B and O blood types. As another example, the structures of sugars on disease-causing bacteria look vastly different from the sugars on human cells. Sugars are thus interesting targets for selective modification and analysis. Since sugars are difficult to study by most conventional methods (e.g. genetics), the use of chemical approaches with small molecules containing chemical handles, in combination with other technologies, is necessary to alter and analyze these biomolecules.

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Danielle Dube Headshot

Education

  • Postdoctoral, Stanford University, 2005-2007
  • PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2005
  • AB, Cornell University, 2000