A.I. Scott Medal Symposium for Biological Chemistry

Professor A. Ian Scott, an internationally acclaimed and pioneering chemist, came to Texas A&M University in 1977 and achieved worldwide renown for his work with vitamin B12, the essential life pigments chlorophyll and heme, the cancer drug taxol, and other important natural products. He was one of the early U.S. chemists to apply the concepts and methodologies of chemistry to the study of biological systems and his research revolutionized both organic and natural products chemistry.

We celebrate the tremendous scientific contributions Scott made during his 30-year-Texas A&M career, both to the University and to the international chemistry community, with the A.I. Scott Medal for Excellence in Biological Chemistry Symposium on October 11-12, 2024. Professor David R. Liu is the 2024 medalist.

2024 A.I. Scott Medalist

Dr. David Liu is a pioneering bioorganic chemist whose research integrates chemistry and evolution to illuminate biology and enable next-generation therapeutics. His major research accomplishments include inventing new methods to engineer, evolve, and perform in vivo delivery of genome-editing proteins, such as base editors and prime editors, to study and treat genetic diseases. Base editing — the first general method to perform precision gene editing without double-stranded breaks — was named one of four 2017 Breakthrough of the Year finalists by Science. Another of the Liu Laboratory’s inventions called phage-assisted continuous evolution (PACE) has enabled the rapid evolution of new proteins with novel therapeutic potential. He also discovered bioactive synthetic small molecules and synthetic polymers using DNA-templated organic synthesis and DNA-encoded libraries. These technologies are used by thousands of labs around the world to study and treat genetic diseases. At least 10 base editing or prime editing clinical trials are already underway to treat diseases, including leukemias, hypercholesterolemia, sickle-cell disease, beta-thalassemia and chronic granulomatous disease, with the first life-saving results of young T-cell leukemia patients already being reported.

Liu graduated first in his class at Harvard College in 1994 and earned his Ph.D. in 1999 from the University of California, Berkeley, where he initiated the first general effort to expand the genetic code in living cells. That same year, he became an assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University, earning promotion to associate professor in 2003 and to full professor in 2005. Liu became a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator in 2005 and joined the JASONs (academic science advisors to the U.S. government) in 2009. In 2016, he became a Core Institute Member and Vice-Chair of the Faculty at the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, as well as director of the Chemical Biology and Therapeutics Science Program.

A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, Liu is the founder or co-founder of several public and private biotechnology and therapeutics companies, including Beam Therapeutics, Prime Medicine, Editas Medicine, Pairwise Plants, Chroma Medicine, Exo Therapeutics, and Nvelop Therapeutics. He was named one of the Top 20 Translational Researchers in the world by Nature Biotechnology in 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2021 as well as one of Nature’s top 10 researchers in the world and a Foreign Policy Leading Global Thinker in 2017. In addition, he is among STAT News’ STATUS List of 46 leaders in health, medicine and science as well as one of Fierce Biotech’s "Most Influential People in Biopharma in 2023."

Symposium Schedule - Friday, October 11

Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building (ILSB) Lobby and Auditorium, Texas A&M University

Medal Presentation

Cavalry Court, 200 Century Court, College Station, Texas

Saturday, October 12

Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building (ILSB) Lobby and Auditorium, Texas A&M University