Eric Oldfield

About

Eric Oldfield was educated at Bec School, London, and received a BSc in Chemistry from Bristol University, doing research with Jake Macmillan and Geoffrey Eglinton, and a PhD in Biophysical Chemistry from Sheffield University, with Dennis Chapman. He then worked as an EMBO Fellow at Indiana University with Adam Allerhand and was a Visiting Scientist at MIT with John Waugh. He joined the Chemistry Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1975 and is currently the Harriett A. Harlin Professor of Chemistry and a Professor in the Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology. His research interests include drug discovery for infectious diseases and cancer, focusing on synthesis of new drug leads, x-ray crystallography, spectroscopy, and computational chemistry. His work is currently centered on two main areas: anti-infective drug leads, particularly targeting virulence factors and membrane permeability to combat drug-resistant bacteria, and anti-cancer drug discovery aimed at metastatic disease and cancer vaccine adjuvants. He has published over 450 papers and received numerous awards, including the Royal Society of Chemistry's Meldola Medal, the Biochemical Society’s Colworth Medal, and the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry.

Research topics

• Biology
• Cell biology
• Microbiology
• Chemistry
• Immunology
• Physics
• Biochemistry
• Biophysics
• Genetics
• Combinatorial chemistry

Selected publications

• A polymeric approach toward resistance-resistant antimicrobial agent with dual-selective mechanisms of action

  Science Advances · 2021 · 124 citations

  , and rescuing mice with severe infections. This "dual mechanisms of action" approach may be a general strategy for future development of antimicrobial polymers.

  DOI

• Phosphoantigens glue butyrophilin 3A1 and 2A1 to activate Vγ9Vδ2 T cells

  Nature · 2023 · 123 citations

  F-NMR investigations, chimeric receptor engineering and direct measurement of intercellular binding force revealed how pAg-mediated BTN2A1 association drives BTN3A1 intracellular fluctuations outwards in a thermodynamically favourable manner, thereby enabling BTN3A1 to push off from the BTN2A1 ectodomain to initiate T cell receptor-mediated γδ T cell activation. Practically, we harnessed the molecular-glue model for immunotherapeutics design, demonstrating chemical principles for developing both…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• SQ109 inhibits proliferation of Leishmania donovani by disruption of intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis, collapsing the mitochondrial electrochemical potential (ΔΨm) and affecting acidocalcisomes

  Parasitology Research · 2020 · 37 citations

  DOI

• Synthesis and Testing of Analogs of the Tuberculosis Drug Candidate SQ109 against Bacteria and Protozoa: Identification of Lead Compounds against <i>Mycobacterium abscessus</i> and Malaria Parasites

  ACS Infectious Diseases · 2023-01-27 · 20 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  SQ109 is a tuberculosis drug candidate that has high potency against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and is thought to function at least in part by blocking cell wall biosynthesis by inhibiting the MmpL3 transporter. It also has activity against bacteria and protozoan parasites that lack MmpL3, where it can act as an uncoupler, targeting lipid membranes and Ca2+ homeostasis. Here, we synthesized 18 analogs of SQ109 and tested them against M. smegmatis, M. tuberculosis, M. abscessus, Bacillus subtilis…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Distinct Energy-Coupling Factor Transporter Subunits Enable Flavin Acquisition and Extracytosolic Trafficking for Extracellular Electron Transfer in Listeria monocytogenes

  mBio · 2023-02-06 · 18 citations

  articleOpen access

  Bacteria import vitamins and other essential compounds from their surroundings but also traffic related compounds from the cytosol to the cell envelope where they serve various functions. Studying the foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes , we find that the modular use of subunits from a prominent class of bacterial transporters enables the import of environmental vitamin B 2 cofactors and the extracytosolic trafficking of a vitamin B 2 -derived cofactor that facilitates redox reactions in t…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01CA158191

  NIH · $1.6M · 2017

• NIH Grant R01HL019481

  NIH · $2.7M · 2004

• NIH Grant R01GM040426

  NIH · $827k · 1994

Frequent coauthors

• Rey‐Ting Guo

  Hubei University

  138 shared

• Yongcheng Song

  125 shared

• Yonghui Zhang

  Center for Life Sciences

  96 shared

• John M. Sanders

  79 shared

• Andrew H.‐J. Wang

  Institute of Biological Chemistry, Academia Sinica

  74 shared

• Gary A. Meints

  Missouri State University

  65 shared

• Julian M. W. Chan

  61 shared

• Chun‐Chi Chen

  60 shared

Awards & honors

• RSC Chemistry-Biology Interface Horizon Prize: Rita and John…
• Biophysical Society Avanti Award in Lipids (2011)
• Soft Matter and Biophysical Award from the Royal Society of…
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sc…
• Campus Award for Excellence in Guiding Undergraduate Researc…

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