Nicola Lucia B. Pohl is an American chemist who is the Joan & Marvin Carmack Chair at Indiana University Bloomington. She also serves as Associate Dean of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. Her research considers new approaches to make and analyse sugars. In 2020 she was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Nicola Lucia B. Pohl
Alma materUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison (PhD)
Radcliffe College (MA)
Scientific career
InstitutionsIowa State University
Indiana University Bloomington
Stanford University
ThesisSynthesis of carbohydrate-based ligands for the selectins and galectins (1997)
Doctoral advisorLaura L. Kiessling

Early life and education

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Pohl earned her master's degree in at Radcliffe College. She graduated in 1991 having majored in English and American literature. Her graduate dissertation considered the works of Flannery O'Connor and Walker Percy.[1] After completing her master's, Pohl started a doctoral research programme in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She has said that she was inspired by her Harvard chemistry professor, Dudley R. Herschbach.[2] Her doctoral research involved the synthesis of carbohydrate-based ligands under the supervision of Laura L. Kiessling. She joined Stanford University as a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow in the research group of Chaitan Khosla.

Research and career

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In 2000 Pohl joined the faculty at Iowa State University.[3] She spent twelve years in Iowa, eventually being made Wilkinson Professor of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering.[4] In 2008 she founded LuCELLa Biosciences, a spin-out company who specialise in the custom synthesis of carbohydrates.[3] Pohl joined Indiana University Bloomington in 2012, where she was made the Professor and Joan & Marvin Carmack Chair.[4]

Pohl is interested in the synthesis and characterisation of sugars in an effort to better understand their role in biological function.[4] By better understanding the interactions of carbohydrates, Pohl believes that she will be able to rationally design vaccinations and other therapies. She demonstrated an oligosaccharide synthesis process that involved automated solution-phase methods. The automation process involves the use of fluorocarbon tags that can be used to pattern the surfaces of tagged molecules to form carbohydrate microarrays.[4] Pohl spent 2019 as a Fulbright Program scholar at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna.[5]

Awards and honours

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Selected publications

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  • Kiessling, Laura L.; Pohl, Nicola L. (1996-02-01). "Strength in numbers: non-natural polyvalent carbohydrate derivatives". Chemistry & Biology. 3 (2): 71–77. doi:10.1016/S1074-5521(96)90280-X. ISSN 1074-5521. PMID 8807830.
  • Ko, Kwang-Seuk; Jaipuri, Firoz A.; Pohl, Nicola L. (2005-09-28). "Fluorous-Based Carbohydrate Microarrays". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 127 (38): 13162–13163. doi:10.1021/ja054811k. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 16173741.
  • Wacker, Michael; Feldman, Mario F.; Callewaert, Nico; Kowarik, Michael; Clarke, Bradley R.; Pohl, Nicola L.; Hernandez, Marcela; Vines, Enrique D.; Valvano, Miguel A.; Whitfield, Chris; Aebi, Markus (2006-05-02). "Substrate specificity of bacterial oligosaccharyltransferase suggests a common transfer mechanism for the bacterial and eukaryotic systems". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103 (18): 7088–7093. doi:10.1073/pnas.0509207103. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 1459022. PMID 16641107.

References

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  1. ^ Pohl, Nicola L (1991). Disease as a metaphor for sin and guilt in the works of Flannery O'Connor and Walker Percy (Thesis). OCLC 76976445.
  2. ^ a b "Inside Iowa State". archive.inside.iastate.edu. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  3. ^ a b Carmen Drahl (2012-08-20). "Nicola Pohl". Chemical & Engineering News Archive. 90 (34): 46. doi:10.1021/cen-09034-cover8. ISSN 0009-2347.
  4. ^ a b c d "Nicola Pohl, PhD". www.nanovaccine.iastate.edu. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  5. ^ a b "Nicola Pohl | Fulbright Scholar Program". www.cies.org. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  6. ^ "News Expert Profile". News at IU. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  7. ^ "Morris, Norma Frances, (born 17 April 1935), Research Fellow, University College London, since 1995", Who's Who, Oxford University Press, 2007-12-01, doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.28189, retrieved 2020-11-26
  8. ^ "Bridging the Gap for Biotherapeutics Development: Joining Automated Oligosaccharide to Automated Peptide Synthesis" (PDF). SVACS. 2018.
  9. ^ "AAAS Announces Leading Scientists Elected as 2020 Fellows | American Association for the Advancement of Science". www.aaas.org. Retrieved 2020-11-26.