For the 1.4 Å-resolution crystal structure of newly FDA-approved Givinostat bound to HDAC6, see the excellent work of former Penn Chemistry grad student Jeremy Osko Dr. Jeremy D. Osko at pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac…

According to the sundial, it’s 4pm. Where am I?

I’ve enjoyed giving HDAC seminars so much this year that I wrote an Account of our work! Highlights include HDAC6/8 complexes with macrocyclic peptides, HDAC6 inhibition by hydrolyzed oxadiazoles, and the discovery that HDAC10 is a polyamine deacetylase.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac…

No visit to Naples is complete without gelato from the historic Gran Caffè Gambrinus Gran Caffè Gambrinus, established in 1860!

This is quite a fancy seminar room! I'm at the Royal Palace of Portici, once the summer home of the King and now part of the University of Naples Unina Federico II. The artwork here is amazing! I don't think the artwork in my slides measures up...

View from the office of my former postoc, Prof Luigi Di Costanzo, at the University of Naples. That’s the island of Capri off to the left.

Right handed helix, where am I?

Good morning London! The journey continues…

Thank you, it was wonderful to meet in person and to hear about the fantastic work you are doing!

The remains of Prof Jeremy Bentham are on display at the Student Centre at University College London…yes, that is he looking over my shoulder.

I enjoyed a delightful post-lecture lunch today with an amazing group of early-career researchers at the Institute for Structural and Chemical Biology at the University of Leicester LISCB University of Leicester. Many thanks for your warm hospitality!

Ciao Napoli! A double-feature of HDAC and terpene cyclase lectures coming up at the University of Naples, Italy. Many thanks to Profs. Luigi Di Costanzo (former Penn Chemistry postdoc) and Angela Lombardi Angela Lombardi for making the arrangements.

Congrats to grad student Sam Eaton Sam Eaton for his just-published work in Biochemistry – in this beautiful protein engineering study, Sam showed us how to manage and manipulate reactive water molecules in a terpene cyclase active site! pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac…

Looking forward to visiting the Leicester Institute for Structural and Chemical Biology University of Leicester next week to give a seminar on our recent HDAC work! Many thanks to Real Professor Moody @petermoody.bsky.social for the invitation.

Last weekend I visited our family burial plot nestled away in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. Heartfelt thanks to the nameless volunteers who tend to the flags that fly proudly over the graves of all our veterans. 🇺🇸36th Infantry Div. 3rd Infantry Division

Congrats to my 6th grade science teacher, Ms. Roberta Zarella, for winning the Excellence in Education award from the North Attleborough Public Schools alumni assoc. in MA. To celebrate, I recreated my first chemistry assignment from 50 years ago – a Bohr model of the neon atom made with M&Ms!

.Michelle Francl, you've stirred up a major international incident, some 250 years after the Boston Tea Party... The salty story is now on CNN, brava!

cnn.com/2024/01/24/tra…

It's ok to draw acetyllysine with a cis-amide linkage