Andrew Lowell

Andrew Lowell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), affiliated with the College of Science. His research focuses on natural products, biosynthetic enzymes, and their application in developing new antibiotics. He leads the Lowell Lab, which investigates enzymatic catalysts for drug synthesis and combats antibiotic resistance through innovative strategies like bidentate antibiotics.

Education:

• B.S. Chemistry, Washington State University, 2003
• M.S./Ph.D. Organic Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, 2008
• Visiting Scholar, University of Pennsylvania, 2009–2012
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Life Sciences Institute, University of Michigan, 2012–2018

Research Interests: The Lowell group explores natural product discovery, biosynthetic pathway elucidation, and biocatalyst-driven chemical synthesis. Key areas include engineering antibiotic candidates (e.g., blasticidin S derivatives), optimizing pleuromutilin-based drugs, and designing bidentate antibiotics to tackle resistant pathogens like MRSA. They integrate organic chemistry, molecular biology, and computational methods to advance drug development.

Publications Trends: Recent work emphasizes semisynthetic antibiotic optimization, polyketide synthase engineering, and computational drug design. Key topics include thermorubin synthesis, pleuromutilin epimers, and ribosomal binding studies.

Awards:

• Travel Award, Future of Bioscience (2017)
• University of Michigan Outstanding Postdoctoral Award (2014–2015)
• Gardner Stacey Research Endowment (2002–2003)

Lab & Future Work: The Lowell Lab at Virginia Tech prioritizes bidentate antibiotic development and enzymatic pathway interrogation. They collaborate on imaging probes for atherosclerosis and investigate glycomaterials with inherent antibacterial properties.