Laura Kiessling, professor of chemistry at MIT, presents the 2017 Beckman-Brown Lecture on Interdisciplinary Science.

Her talk focuses on the roles of carbohydrate-binding proteins in checking glycan IDs. Topics include probing the fundamental chemical forces underlying the recognition of carbohydrates to understanding how nature exploits these interactions to detect microbes. Kiessling's research combines tools from organic synthesis, polymer chemistry, structural biology, and molecular and cell biology.

The Annual Beckman-Brown Lecture on Interdisciplinary Science honors Dr. Arnold O. Beckman, the founder of the Institute, and Dr. Theodore “Ted” Brown, the founding director. The series is funded by a gift from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation.

The lecture was presented at the Beckman Institute on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus on November 3, 2017.