Christian Melander received a B.S. in Chemistry with departmental honors from UC Davis in 1994 where he worked under the direction of Professor Mark Kurth developing combinatorial approaches to small molecule libraries. He subsequently received a Ph.D. in organic chemistry, supported by an NIH chemistry and biology-training grant, studying with Professor David Horne at Columbia University where he investigated the catalytic potential of nucleic acid bases. From 1998-2001 Christian was an NIH postdoctoral scholar at Caltech under the direction of Professor Peter Dervan studying the sequence-specific recognition of DNA with pyrrole/imidazole polyamides. Christian then directed the organic synthesis department at Xencor, Inc. in Monrovia, CA as a Lead Scientist from February of 2001 until September of 2002. He returned to academic research as a Research Associate at The Scripps Research Institute in the laboratory of Professor Joel Gottesfeld in the Department of Molecular Biology from 2002-2004. At Scripps, Christian utilized pyrrole/imidazole polyamides to explore potential therapeutics for both colon cancer and Friedrich’s ataxia. In July of 2004, Christian started his independent career as an Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University in the Department of Chemistry, in August, 2010 was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure, in August of 2013 promoted to Full Professor, and in January of 2014 named Howard J. Schaeffer Distinguished Professor. In July, 2018 Christian relocated to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Notre Dame as the George & Winifred Clark Professor. Research in the Melander lab is focused on 1) defining small molecules that control bacterial behavior and 2) small molecule-coated nanoparticles that have antibacterial and antiviral properties. During his independent career, Christian has received the Sigma Xi faculty research award, the NCSU Entrepreneur of the Year award, and the Industrial Innovation Award from the Southeastern ACS.
7/2018-Present George and Winifred Clark Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame
2015-Present Affiliate Member, Department of Microbiology, Colorado State University
2014-6/2018 Howard J. Schaeffer Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, North Carolina State University
2014-6/2018 University Faculty Scholar, North Carolina State University
2013-6/2018 Professor, Department of Chemistry, North Carolina State University
2010-2013 Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, North Carolina State University
2004-2010 Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, North Carolina State University
2002-2004 Research Associate, Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute
1998-2001 Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, The California Institute of Technology
Education
1998 Ph.D. Chemistry, Columbia University
1998 M.Phil. Chemistry, Columbia University
1995 M.A. Chemistry, Columbia University
1994 B.S. Chemistry, University of California, Davis