QnAs with Chaitan Khosla

Abstract

Stanford University chemical engineer Chaitan Khosla has spent his career at the intersection of chemistry and medicine. One of the first researchers to discover the molecular assembly lines bacteria use to build antibiotics, he has methodically investigated the structure and biochemistry of polyketide synthase (PKS) enzymes. His efforts are ultimately aimed at identifying and creating medically useful antibiotics for human and animal diseases. Along the way, Khosla has explored the biochemistry of celiac disease. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2020, Khosla describes in his Inaugural Article (1) a genetic element that appears to supercharge PKS evolution, possibly allowing bacteria to quickly develop new antibiotics for changing environments. Khosla talked to PNAS about his discovery. Chaitan Khosla. Image credit: Stanford University Department of Chemistry. > PNAS:Your Inaugural Article (1) examines PKS evolution; how can this lead to medically important discoveries? > Khosla:If you’re trying to understand dinosaurs, it’s much more powerful when you have a gazillion dinosaurs, each slightly different, because then you have a continuum of evolutionary function to study. That is what these assembly line PKSs offer. There are literally tens of thousands of them and each does something slightly different. So, you can look at five different assembly lines doing exactly the same thing but with …