Jeffrey D. Rudolf
Associate Professor
Research Focus
Our group works on discovering novel natural products from bacteria, understanding how they are made, and how they can be utilized and engineered for human health. Natural products chemically and structurally diverse naturally-occurring small molecules, have diverse roles in nature, and are the most successful class of drugs. Genome sequencing reveals that bacteria possess nearly an unlimited number of new natural products. These natural products require undiscovered pathways and enzymes to biosynthesize them, providing opportunities to biochemically characterize unique enzymes. Research in our group is very multidisciplinary; students receive training in chemistry, biosynthesis, enzymology, microbiology, genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, and metabolomics.
Education and Training
2013–2018: Postdoctoral Fellow, Scripps Research (lab of Ben Shen)
2007–2013: Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Utah (lab of C. Dale Poulter)
2003–2007: B.S. Biochemistry, Walla Walla University
Selected Awards
NSF CAREER Award (2025–2030)
American Society of Pharmacognosy D. John Faulkner Award (2023)
NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) (2017–2021)
Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship (2017–2018)
The Scripps Research Institute Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship (2015–2016)
Selected Activities
Associate Editor, Beilstein J. Org. Chem., 2024–
Co-Guest Editor, Beilstein J. Org. Chem., Young Investigators in Natural Products, 2024
Guest Editor, Meth. Enzymol., Volume 699, Terpene Synthases, 2024
Selected Publications
Wei, X.; DeSnoo, W.; Li, Z.; Ning, W.; Kong, W.-Y.; Nafie, J.; Tantillo, D. J.;* Rudolf, J. D.* Avoidance of secondary carbocations, unusual deprotonation, and non-statistical dynamic effects in the cyclization mechanism of the 5/5/5/5-tetracyclic tetraisoquinane skeleton. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, 16293–16300.
Wei, X.; Ning, W.; McCadden, C.; Alsup, T. A.; Li, Z.; Łomowska-Keehner, D. P.; Nafie, J.; Qu, T.; Osei Opoku, M.; Gillia, G. R.; Xu, B.; Icenhour, D. G.; Rudolf, J. D.* Exploring and expanding the natural chemical space of bacterial diterpenes. Nat. Commun. 2025, 16, 3721.
Li, Z.; Xu, B.; Alsup, T. A.; Wei, X.; Ning, W.; Icenhour, D. G.; Ehrenberger, M. A.; Ghiviriga, I.; Giang, B.-D.; Rudolf, J. D.* Cryptic isomerization in diterpene biosynthesis and the restoration of an evolutionarily defunct P450. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 22361–22365.