Sidney Hecht

About

Sidney M. Hecht is the director for the Center for BioEnergetics in the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. He researches diseases caused by defects in the body's energy production processes. Energy production is similar mechanistically to other molecular processes that he has studied extensively. He played a key role in the development of Hycamtin, a drug used to treat ovarian and lung cancer, as well as the study of the mechanism of the anti-tumor agent bleomycin. In a career spanning more than three decades, Professor Hecht has held both academic and industrial research positions. He joins ASU from the University of Virginia, where he was a professor of both chemistry and biology. From 1981 to 1987, he concurrently held leadership positions in research and development for Smith Kline and French Laboratories. Prior to his 28 years at the University of Virginia, he was a faculty member at MIT. Hecht is the co-founder of Edison Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical company focusing on inherited mitochondrial disorders. He earned a B.A. in chemistry from the University of Rochester and a Ph.D. in chemistry with emphasis in biochemistry from the University of Illinois.

Research topics

• Biochemistry
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Pharmacology
• Medicine
• Pathology
• Neuroscience

Selected publications

• Interlocking activities of DNA polymerase β in the base excision repair pathway

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2022-03-01 · 28 citations

  articleOpen access

  SignificanceBase excision repair (BER) is one of the major DNA repair pathways used to fix a myriad of cellular DNA lesions. The enzymes involved in BER, including DNA polymerase β (Polβ), have been identified and characterized, but how they act together to efficiently perform BER has not been fully understood. Through gel electrophoresis, mass spectrometry, and kinetic analysis, we discovered that the two enzymatic activities of Polβ can be interlocked, rather than functioning independently fro…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Antiferroptotic Activity of Phenothiazine Analogues: A Novel Therapeutic Strategy for Oxidative Stress Related Disease

  ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters · 2020 · 26 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  ) exhibited an improved protection compared to the parent phenothiazine against erastin- and RSL3-induced ferroptotic cell death. These analogues have equivalent or better potency than ferrostatin-1 (Fer-1) and liproxstatin-1 (Lip-1), that are among the most potent inhibitors of this regulated cell death described so far. They represent novel lead compounds with therapeutic potential in relevant ferroptosis-driven disease models such as FRDA.

  DOI

• Expansion of the Genetic Code Through the Use of Modified Bacterial Ribosomes

  Journal of Molecular Biology · 2021 · 20 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Elongation Factor P Modulates the Incorporation of Structurally Diverse Noncanonical Amino Acids into <i>Escherichia coli</i> Dihydrofolate Reductase

  Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2023-10-23 · 10 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  The introduction of noncanonical amino acids into proteins and peptides has been of great interest for many years and has facilitated the detailed study of peptide/protein structure and mechanism. In addition to numerous nonproteinogenic α-l-amino acids, bacterial ribosome modification has provided the wherewithal to enable the synthesis of peptides and proteins with a much greater range of structural diversity, as has the use of endogenous bacterial proteins in reconstituted protein synthesizin…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Protein synthesis with conformationally constrained cyclic dipeptides

  Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry · 2020-09-23 · 10 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant U01CA050771

  NIH · $2.6M · 1995

• NIH Grant R01CA077359

  NIH · $2.9M · 2008

• NIH Grant R01CA077284

  NIH · $2.1M · 2008

Frequent coauthors

• Shengxi Chen

  Arizona State University

  100 shared

• Omar M. Khdour

  Arizona State University

  92 shared

• Larisa M. Dedkova

  Arizona State University

  75 shared

• Craig J. Thomas

  48 shared

• David G. I. Kingston

  Virginia Tech

  46 shared

• Christian Bailly

  Onco Lille

  42 shared

• Randall K. Johnson

  Mississippi College

  41 shared

• Brian M. Eisenhauer

  University of Virginia

  40 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Chemistry (minor Biochemistry)

  University of Illinois

  1970

• B.A., Chemistry

  University of Rochester

  1966

Similar researchers at Arizona State University

• Hao Yanh-108
• Ana Mooreh-89
• Petra Frommeh-72