Serge Beaucage's Biography

Serge Beaucage, Chief, Laboratory of Biological Chemistry, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), US Food & Drug Administration (FDA)

Serge L. Beaucage obtained a doctoral degree for his research in nucleic acid chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Kelvin K. Ogilvie at McGill University in Montreal. He was then awarded a NRCC postdoctoral fellowship to join the laboratory of Prof. Marvin H. Caruthers at the University of Colorado where he designed, developed, and co-invented deoxyribonucleoside phosphoramidites for the automated synthesis of DNA sequences. Subsequently, Dr. Beaucage held a senior postdoctoral fellowship of the American Cancer Society in the laboratory of Prof. Stanley N. Cohen at Stanford University School of Medicine where he applied nucleic acid chemistry to the mechanistic study of DNA plasmid inheritance in E. coli. Since joining the FDA in 1988, Dr. Beaucage’s research interests have encompassed the development of novel synthetic methods aimed at improving the chemical synthesis of DNA/RNA sequences and their analogues for potential therapeutic applications. Specifically, Dr. Beaucage’s research has led to the implementation of thermolabile groups for phosphate/thiophosphate protection in the preparation of thermolytic oligonucleotide prodrugs and to development of innovative 2’-hydroxyl protecting groups for solid-phase RNA synthesis, in the context of RNA interference applications. More recently, the synthesis and use of amphipathic trans-acting DNA and RNA elements to improve cellular/tissue delivery of nucleic acid-based drugs in mammalian cells and the development of solid-phase purification methods for synthetic DNA and RNA sequences have become the focal point of Dr. Beaucage’s research objectives.