Education

B.S. Louisiana State University, 2002
Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin, 2008
Hewitt Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, The Scripps Research Institute, 2009-2014

Biography

Dr. Hsu’s research program applies the principles of chemistry and chemical biology to study fundamental protein biology. A special emphasis is placed on proteins involved in metabolism of fats (i.e. lipids) because lipids are important chemical signals for basic communication in biology and historically have served as valuable targets for medicine. The Hsu lab pursues innovations in covalent chemistry, chemical proteomics and metabolomics to probe lipid molecules and pathways in living systems with the long-term goal of devising new pharmacological strategies for immunology and cancer biology.

Recent Publications

Liganding functional tyrosine sites on proteins using sulfur-triazole exchange chemistry. Brulet JW, Borne AL, Yuan K, Libby AH, and Hsu KL. Journal of the American Chemical Society 142, 8270-8280 (2020).

Reprogramming fatty acyl specificity of lipid kinases via C1 domain engineering. Ware TB, Franks CE, Granade ME, Zhang M, Kim KB, Park KS, Gahlmann A, Harris TE, and Hsu KL. Nature Chemical Biology 16, 170-178 (2020).

Global targeting of functional tyrosines using sulfur triazole exchange chemistry. Hahm HS*, Toroitich EK*, Borne AL*, Brulet JW*, Libby AH, Yuan K, Ware TB, McCloud RL, Ciancone AM, and Hsu KL. Nature Chemical Biology 16, 150-159 (2020).

Isoform-selective activity-based profiling of ERK signaling. Shin M, Franks CE, and Hsu KL. Chemical Science 9, 2419-2431 (2018).

Awards and Honors

• NSF CAREER (2020)
• Melanoma Research Alliance Young Investigator Award (2018)
• DOD Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program Career Development Award (2016) 
• NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award (2015)