Ciaran Seath

Ciaran Seath is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Scripps-UF (The Wertheim Scripps UF Institute) in Jupiter, Florida, where he leads the Seath Research Chemistry Lab. His research focuses on using chemical biology methods to discover new therapeutically relevant protein-biomolecule interactions that contribute to disease.

Dr. Seath completed his PhD in chemistry from the University of Strathclyde in 2017 under the supervision of Dr. Allan Watson, studying chemoselective transition-metal catalysis. He then conducted postdoctoral research at Emory University with Professor Nathan Jui, developing novel reductive photoredox methodologies, and at Princeton University with Professors David MacMillan and Tom Muir, exploring photocatalytic methods for proximity labeling in cancer biology.

His research interests span several critical areas in chemical biology:

• New Therapeutic Strategies: Using proximity labeling methods to understand how mutations and post-translational modifications lead to diseased phenotypes
• Understanding Transcription in Disease: Investigating "undruggable" proteins that control transcriptional activation with the goal of finding new cancer therapies
• PhotoChemical Biology: Developing new chemical reactions in cells driven by visible light irradiation to modify proteins and biomolecules

Dr. Seath's laboratory focuses on using state-of-the-art methods in chemical biology to discover new protein-biomolecule interactions relevant to disease, with particular interest in pediatric brain tumors, biochemistry and cell biology, and clinical and translational science.

His recent work demonstrates a strong trend toward developing and applying proximity labeling techniques, particularly photoproximity labeling methods with varying activation wavelengths and spatial resolution, to study protein interactions in complex biological systems. His research bridges chemistry, biology, and medicine, with a clear translational focus on developing new therapeutic approaches for challenging diseases.

Dr. Seath has secured multiple research grants as Principal Investigator from prestigious sources including Pfizer Inc, the National Institutes of Health (NIGMS, NCI), and the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund. These grants support his innovative work in chromatin chemical biology, photocatalysis, and epigenetic drug discovery.

He is actively involved in translational research at Scripps-UF to understand human disease, with his laboratory (The Laboratory of Subcellular Technologies) focusing on developing new chemical tools to address fundamental biological questions with therapeutic implications.