Chemistry to Control Biology & Building a World-Class Lab with Bryan Dickinson

In our conversation, Bryan discusses everything from directed evolution and drugging RNA to what it takes to start a lab. The Dickinson Lab at the University of Chicago is a unique group composed of biochemists & synthetic chemists to cell biologists & synthetic biologists. The lab set up shop in 2014 to use chemistry to control biology with both evolutionary and rational methods. Bryan's research is heavily influenced by his career starting as an undergrad at Maryland with mentorship from David Fushman to graduate research with Chris Chang at UC Berkeley and a postdoc with David Liu at Harvard. At each point, picking up new tools to work with and models to follow.

Bryan "works with people he is inspired by." And that has been a key driver of his group's success. To run such an interdisciplinary lab, Bryan focuses on important problems rather than a particular technique or tool. This not only cultivates openness to new solutions but aligns everyone around a shared passion & purpose. Bryan's lab has 3 main areas of research - (1) Chemical biology for protein lipidation, (2) Biosensors to control PPIs, and the (3) Epitranscriptome. We touch upon several examples here, but the key theme is inventing new, functional molecules, whether they are small molecules, proteins, or engineered organisms, to make breakthroughs in biology. This molecule-agnostic approach requires the ability to synthesize small molecules, screen large libraries of molecules, and use directed evolution to reprogram cells and design proteins. Finally, we discuss how to determine what is a valuable problem to work on. A skill that is nurtured with support from mentors and a team.

A common thread across the conversation is the power of evolution, nature's way of designing things, to not only optimize but uncover new forms of biology. Similar to using a guide to solve a puzzle. As the conversation goes on, it becomes clear chemical biologists will play a central role in breaking down existing barriers to study things like RNA modifications, PPIs, and more. Near the end, we discuss the relationship between academic science and industry especially as early-career scientists join and start their own companies. Bryan's lab has done incredibly creative research and I would recommend everyone to read his papers. Ultimately, Bryan's work is making an impact in therapeutics with a purview on energy/climate and serves as a template for other inventors looking to build interdisciplinary teams.