We are delighted to announce that Dr. Jesse Zalatan will be joining the Department as Assistant Professor of Chemistry. Dr. Zalatan conducted his undergraduate work at Harvard University, performing research with Professor Stephen Harrison. He received his Ph.D. in chemistry with Professor Daniel Herschlag at Stanford University, where he studied enzyme-catalyzed phosphoryl transfer reactions. He is presently a postdoctoral fellow with Professor Wendell Lim at the University of California at San Francisco, where he has studied mechanisms for controlling specificity in cell signaling networks. He has received a Hertz Foundation graduate fellowship, a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation postdoctoral fellowship, and a Burroughs Wellcome Career Award at the Scientific Interface for his research.

Dr. Zalatan will launch his program at the University of Washington in September 2014. His work will focus on the molecular mechanisms that allow living cells to efficiently process, integrate, and coordinate signals. He will use approaches ranging from mechanistic enzymology to synthetic biology to explore the physical organizing principles of biological networks.

For more information, please visit his faculty page or contact him directly via email at zalatan@chem.washington.edu.