Helen Blackwell


Helen E. Blackwell is an American organic chemist and chemical biologist. She is a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Education

Blackwell was educated as an undergraduate at Oberlin College, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry in 1994. She received a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1999.

Career and research

Nearing the end of her doctoral education in 1999, Blackwell gained an interest in biology and joined Stuart Schreiber's lab at Harvard University. At the time, the lab was focussing on animal models, but Blackwell decided to work with plants. During her research, Blackwell identified several small-molecule sirtuin inhibitors in Arabidopsis plants.
Blackwell's research utilizes chemical probes—synthesized using microwave-assistance, solid synthesis, and combinatorial chemistry—to better understand bacterial communication and interactions between a microbe and its host, more specifically, how plants and animals react to microbe invasion, and how bacteria use quorum sensing to determine when to attack their host.
Blackwell is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has received the Agnes Fay Morgan Research Award.

Publications

Blackwell has written more than 130 academic journal papers, she is the co-author of,, and