John Hanson

John Hanson is an organic chemist with research interests focused on understanding the interactions between proteins and their ligands or substrates, with particular emphasis on understanding the forces that lead to ligand binding, how these forces are used to promote enzymatic catalysis, and how our knowledge of protein-ligand interactions can be used to design more potent inhibitors. His work involves the design, synthesis, and evaluation of enzyme substrates and inhibitors. Hanson’s fields of expertise include organic synthesis, bioorganic chemistry, computational chemistry, molecular modeling, and developing lab experiments for chemical education. His work is applicable to modern methods of drug design. He co-wrote “Exploring the Stereochemistry of the Wittig Reaction: The Unexpected Influence of a Nominal Spectator Ion,” in The Journal of Chemical Education (2010) and published “NMR Spectroscopy in Nondeuterated Solvents: Applications in the Undergraduate Organic Laboratory” (2013).