Satish K Nair

Satish K Nair is a Gregorio Weber Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Illinois, affiliated with the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology and the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. He holds additional roles as Director of the Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology and Professor in the Materials Research Lab. His research focuses on bacterial natural product biosynthesis, enzymology, and X-ray crystallography.

Education: B.S. (1989, Brown University), Ph.D. (1994, University of Pennsylvania), and postdoctoral training (1995–99, Rockefeller University).

Research Interests: Drug discovery, host-pathogen interactions, microbial physiology, and protein structure. Key projects include ribosomally synthesized peptide antibiotics (e.g., lantibiotics and cyanobactins), phosphonate biosynthesis engineering, and bacterial communication mechanisms.

Recent Publications: Focus on antibiotic biosynthesis (e.g., microcin C, Trojan horse peptides), enzyme characterization (SAM enzymes, LanC), and viral evolution (H3N2 hemagglutinin). These studies highlight interdisciplinary approaches combining biochemistry, microbiology, and structural biology.

Affiliations: Active in the Mining Microbial Genomes theme at the Institute for Genomic Biology, collaborating with Wilfred van der Donk (Chemistry), Doug Mitchell (UIUC), and Eric Schmidt (Medicinal Chemistry, Utah).

Labs & Teams: Leads the Nair Lab, specializing in enzymatic mechanisms and natural product engineering. Collaborations span biochemistry, microbiology, and chemical engineering disciplines.