Biography

Derek S. Tan was born and raised in Rochester, New York. His parents, both chemists at Eastman Kodak, encouraged him not to go into chemistry, and so he became a chemist. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from Stanford University in 1995, working with Prof. Dale G. Drueckhammer on the dynamic enzymatic resolution of thioesters. He then went onto graduate studies with Prof. Stuart L. Schreiber at Harvard University, carrying out early research in the field of diversity-oriented synthesis. His work included the synthesis of a combinatorial library of over two million polycyclic small molecules derived from shikimic acid. After receiving his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2000, he joined the laboratory of Prof. Samuel J. Danishefsky at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he studied natural products total synthesis and helped complete the first total synthesis of a novel terpenoid antibiotic, guanacastepene A.

He began his independent career in 2002 as an Assistant Member in the Molecular Pharmacology & Chemistry Program at MSKCC in 2002 and as a Tri-Institutional Assistant Professor at the Rockefeller University and Cornell University (Weill Medical College and Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology) in 2003. He was promoted to Tri-Institutional Associate Professor and Associate Member in 2008. His current research interests include the use of diversity-oriented synthesis and rational design to identify new small molecule probes for a variety of biological targets with potential therapeutic applications in cancer and infectious diseases. His laboratory leverages forefront methodologies in organic synthesis and multidisciplinary collaborations with biologists.