Carolyn Bertozzi

Carolyn Bertozzi received the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for founding the field of bioorthogonal chemistry, a type of chemistry used to learn about cells, track biological processes and, in cancer research, improve the ways drugs target cancer cells. She is currently the Director of the ChEM-H (Chemistry, Engineering & Medicine for Human Health) Institute at Stanford University, where she is also the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences.

Dr. Bertozzi's research interests span the disciplines of chemistry and biology with an emphasis on studies of cell surface sugars important to human health and disease. Her Bertozzi Group profiles changes in cell surface glycosylation associated with cancer, inflammation and bacterial infection, and uses this information to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, most recently in the area of immuno-oncology.

Dr. Bertozzi completed her undergraduate degree in Chemistry at Harvard University and her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, focusing on the chemical synthesis of oligosaccharide analogs. During postdoctoral work at UC San Francisco, she studied the activity of endothelial oligosaccharides in promoting cell adhesion at sites of inflammation. She joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1996. A Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator since 2000, she came to Stanford University in 2015, among the first faculty to join the interdisciplinary institute ChEM-H. She is now the Baker Family Director at the institute.

A MacArthur Fellow, Dr. Bertozzi has received many awards for her dedication to chemistry, and to training a new generation of scientists fluent in both chemistry and biology. She has been elected to the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and received the Lemelson-MIT Prize, the Heinrich Wieland Prize, the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry, and the Chemistry of the Future Solvay Prize, among others. Forbes recognized her influential work in 2023 by naming her to their "50 Over 50" list.

A serial entrepreneur, Bertozzi has founded or cofounded eight different biotech startups including OliLux Biosciences, which develops new methods for tuberculosis detection, and Lycia Therapeutics, which develops treatments for certain types of cancer.