Andrew G. Myers

Andrew G. Myers is the Amory Houghton Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, where he has been a faculty member since 1998. He previously served as Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology from 2007-2010 and began his independent academic career at Caltech in 1986, where he rose to Full Professor in 1994. His laboratory is located at 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA.

Professor Myers received his Bachelor of Science degree from MIT in 1981, where he was introduced to chemical research in the laboratory of Professor William R. Roush. He then pursued graduate studies and a brief postdoc with Nobel laureate Professor E.J. Corey at Harvard University from 1981-1986.

Myers' research program focuses on the synthesis and study of complex molecules of importance in biology and human medicine. His laboratory has developed synthetic routes to numerous natural products including ene-diyne antibiotics, tetracycline antibiotics, saframycins, cytochalasins, and trioxacarcins. He pioneered the first practical synthetic route to tetracycline antibiotics, enabling the synthesis of more than three thousand fully synthetic analogs, which has led to clinical candidates for infectious disease treatment developed at Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, a company he founded. His group has also developed numerous reagents and procedures of general utility in complex molecule construction, particularly using pseudoephenamine and pseudoephedrine as chiral auxiliaries.

Professor Myers' recent publications demonstrate a continued focus on antibiotic development, particularly against drug-resistant pathogens. His work spans tetracycline, macrolide, and lincosamide antibiotic classes, with emphasis on developing practical synthetic routes that enable the creation of novel analogs to combat antibiotic resistance. His research also extends to cancer therapeutics, with work on natural products like avrainvillamide showing promise in acute myeloid leukemia treatment.

Professor Myers has founded Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals to commercialize his synthetic tetracycline technology. His laboratory has been highly productive, with over 160 publications spanning organic synthesis methodology, natural product synthesis, antibiotic development, and mechanistic studies of drug action.

The Myers Research Group maintains a strong focus on developing highly convergent synthetic pathways that provide practical, scalable solutions for constructing molecular classes with modular variations. This approach has proven particularly valuable in the development of new antibiotics to address the growing challenge of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections.