Samuel Danishefsky
| Samuel J. Danishefsky | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 10, 1936 |
| Nationality | American |
| Institutions |
University of Pittsburgh, Yale University, Columbia University |
| Alma mater |
Yeshiva University, Harvard University |
| Doctoral advisor | Peter Yates |
| Known for |
Danishefsky’s diene, Danishefsky Taxol total synthesis |
Samuel J. Danishefsky (born March 10, 1936) is an American chemist working as a professor at both Columbia University and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
Samuel J. Danishefsky was born in 1936 in the United States. He completed his B.S. from Yeshiva University in 1956. He earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University in 1962 with Peter Yates, which partially overlapped with a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Gilbert Stork at Columbia University.
After completing his PhD, he became professor at the University of Pittsburgh, where he eventually attained the rank of University Professor and taught until 1979. From 1979 to 1993, he was a professor at Yale University, where he rose to the rank of Sterling Professor of Chemistry. By 1991 he was sharing his time with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as director of the Laboratory for Cancer Research Bioorganic Chemistry, becoming chair in 1993. He accepted an appointment as professor at Columbia University in 1993, and now splits his time between Columbia and Sloan-Kettering.
Samuel J. Danishefsky is known for his role in synthesizing the many complex organic compounds, many of which are related to pharmaceuticals. Among the molecules synthesized by Danishefsky at Columbia University are epothilones and calicheamicin, which are natural products with promise as anti-cancer agents.
The Danishefsky Taxol total synthesis was the third synthesis of taxol, a highly topical natural product. Together with the Holton Taxol total synthesis and the Nicolaou Taxol total synthesis, these multistep sequences illustrate the state of the art in total synthesis.
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