Organic Chemistry Insights

Yitzhak Tor is a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Traylor Scholar in Organic Chemistry, at the University of California, San Diego. He earned his B.Sc. at Tel Aviv University, where he carried out research with Shlomo Rozen on the development of electrophilic fluorinating agents, graduating in 1982. He carried out his doctorate work with Abraham Shanzer at the Weizmann Institute of Science focusing on the development of synthetic siderophores. He earned his Ph.D. in 1990 and crossed the Atlantic for a postdoctoral work at the California Institute of Technology, with Peter B. Dervan. After three fascinating years in Pasadena where he was exposed to the remarkable area of nucleic acids recognition, he left California to take his first faculty appointment at the University of Chicago. In 1994, after exactly one year, he moved to the University of California, San Diego.

His research interests are diverse and include RNA–small molecule interactions, the development of novel antiviral and antibacterial agents, the synthesis and utilization of fluorescent nucleosides and nucleotides, as well as the development and implementation of new drug delivery vehicles.

Away from chemistry, his interests are predominantly in playing and recording music, and playing with his family.