Scott Taylor

• Biological and medicinal chemistry
• Synthetic methodology
• Enzymology
• Bionanomaterials

Scott Taylor’s research program is currently focussed on four key areas: (1) the synthesis and study of cyclic lipodepsipeptide antibiotics; (2) the development of novel phosphorylation chemistry and its application to the synthesis of inhibitors of cytidine triphosphate synthase, an anti-cancer and antiviral target; (3) the development of inhibitors of steroid sulfatase, a breast cancer target and, (4) the modification of starch nanoparticles which are evaluated for their ability to extract oil from oil sands and as novel wound dressings. 

A wide variety of techniques are employed such as nuclear magnetic resonance, fluorimetry, high-performance liquid chromatography, protein purification, spectrophotometry, mass spectrometry, differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic light scattering.

• Medicinal Chemistry
• Organic Chemistry for Chemical Engineers
• Introduction to Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry
• Introductory Organic Chemistry

Recent publications include

• Moreira, R.; Barnawi, G.; Beriashvili, D.; Palmer, M.; Taylor, S. D.* The effect of replacing the ester bond with an amide bond and of overall stereochemistry on the activity of daptomycin. Bioorg Med Chem. 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.bmc.2018.12.004

• Mohamady, S.; Taylor, S. D.* Synthesis of nucleoside‐5′‐O‐tetraphosphates from activated trimetaphosphate and nucleoside‐5′‐O‐monophosphates, Curr. Protoc. Nucleic Acid Chem. 2018, doi: 10.1002/cpnc

• Moreira, R.; Taylor, S. D.* Asymmetric synthesis of Fmoc-protected β-hydroxy and β-methoxy amino acids via a Sharpless aminohydroxylation reaction using FmocNHCl. Org. Lett. 2018, 20, 7717–7720.

• Mohammady, S.;* Kralt, B,; Samwel, S. K.; Taylor, S. D. Efficient one-Pot, two-component modular synthesis of 3,5-disubstituted pyrazoles. ACS Omega, 2018, 3, pp 15566–15574.

• Beriashvili, D.; Taylor, R.; Kralt, B.; Abu Mazen, N.; Taylor, S. D.; Palmer, M.* Mechanistic studies on the effect of membrane lipid acyl chain composition on daptomycin pore formation. Chem Phys Lipids. 2018, 216, 73–79.

• Barnawi, G.; Noden, M.; Taylor, R.; Lohani, C.; Beriashvili, D.; Palmer, M*.; Taylor, S. D.* An entirely Fmoc solid phase approach to the synthesis of daptomycin analogs. Biopolymers: Peptide Sci. 2018, doi: 10.1002/bip.23094.

• Outstanding Performance Award, 2012 & 2017
• Premiere’s Research Excellence Award, 2000      
• International Union of Pure and Applied Chemists (IUPAC) Travel Award, 1997     
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Dept. of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, 1992-94      
• Ontario Graduate Scholarship, Dept. of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 1990-91  
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Post-Graduate Scholarship B, Dept. of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 1988-90    
• Bio-Mega Boehringer Ingelheim Inc. Award for excellence in graduate research, Dept. of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 1990   
• Ontario Graduate Scholarship, Dept. of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 1987-88  
• George F. Wright Seminar Award for outstanding graduate student presentation, Dept. of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 1988      
• Faculty Scholar, McGill University, 1984-85 

• Member of the Institute of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
• Member of the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology

• Chair, Mass spec users committee, 2014-present
• Awards committee, 2013-present
• NMR users committee, 2000-present

• April 17, 2015: Waterloo scientists win Seed Fund for antibiotic and lung disease research

• February 4, 2015:  Chemists develop new method to improve the discovery of antibiotics

1991 Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON

1986 B.Sc. Biochemistry, McGill University, Montreal, QC