Sheila S. David 21st International Conference on Biological Inorganic Chemistry 2025

Sheila S. David

Sheila S. David grew-up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She received her undergraduate degree (B.A. 1984) in Chemistry at Saint Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. She did her graduate work at the University of Minnesota in bioinorganic chemistry in the laboratory of Professor Lawrence Que, Jr. and received her Ph.D. in 1989. Her interest in nucleic acid chemistry drew her to the laboratory of Professor Jacqueline K. Barton at the California Institute of Technology where she was an NIH postdoctoral fellow (1990-1992). She joined the faculty at the University of California, Santa Cruz in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry as an Assistant Professor in 1992. During 1996, she moved her laboratory to Salt Lake City to join the faculty in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Utah where she rose through the ranks to Professor. In 2007, she moved her laboratory to the chemistry department at the University of California, Davis. Her research interests are in the areas of bioinorganic and bioorganic chemistry and chemical biology. In particular, her laboratory has focused on using chemical and biological approaches to study enzymes involved in the excision of damaged DNA bases. Her work has established features important for recognition and excision of damaged DNA bases, as well as provided insight into the role of the 4Fe-4S cofactor in these enzymes. Her laboratory also played an important role in establishing the link between variants in the human homolog of MutY (MUTYH) and colorectal cancer- a disorder that is now referred to as MUTYH-associated polyposis (MAP).